Daily Business Report-Jan. 19, 2016
Artist’s rendering shows the 45-story hotel, center structure, and the shared-lodging hotel, at far right, on the bay side of the San Diego Convention Center. (Photo courtesy of Gensler)
45-Story Convention Center Hotel
Proposed for Key Bayside Site
San Diego developer Robert Green has submitted a proposal to build an 831-room convention center hotel and a smaller shared-lodging hotel on a six-acre parcel of land at the waterfront that officials had hoped to use for the planned expansion of the San Diego Convention Center.
Plans for the $270 million project were submitted to the Port of San Diego by the Robert Green Company, in partnership with Fifth Avenue Landing LLC, which has held the ground lease on the property for more than three decades.
The planned expansion of the convention center has gone nowhere since a judge ruled that a financing plan for the expansion was illegal.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the decision by Fifth Avenue Landing to move forward on a hotel project comes just a month after it sent a letter to City Council members giving the city until March 1 to exercise an option to acquire, for $13.8 million, its leasehold, situated between the convention center and San Diego Bay.
Fifth Avenue Landing, led by Arthur Engel and Raymond Carpenter, approached Green to bring a hotel project to fruition. The Robert Green Company has developed hotels throughout the United States and is currently under construction on Pendry San Diego in the Gaslamp Quarter.
“The opportunity to build a world-class hotel on San Diego’s Bay and provide the public with new, high-quality open space is an exciting opportunity for our company,” said Green in a statement.
A key element of the project is its public access plan, designed to enhance public accessibility to the Bay from Downtown and fill the public access voids within the project area. These improvements include a new bridge that would link the Convention Center public viewing platforms and new plazas along San Diego Bay.
Besides the 45-story convention center hotel, the development would include a 565-bed shared-lodging hotel, a parking structure, an expanded marina, new public open space and viewing plazas.
The project, designed by Gensler Architects, will be previewed for conceptual approval by the Board of Port Commissioners within the next two months.
For the project to go forward, it would need approval by the California Coastal Commission.
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Airport’s New Rental Car
Center Opens Wednesday
San Diego International Airport’s new $316 million Rental Car Center is scheduled to open on Wednesday housing 14 car rental brands, including
national brands as well as local, independent and small business rental car companies.
The center, located off Pacific Highway, replaces the group of buildings on Harbor Drive that for years housed most rental car companies serving the airport.
In a related change, all rental car customers will be carried to and from the terminals in 16 new alternative-fuel shuttles owned and operated by the Airport Authority. This fleet replaces the approximately 81 shuttles now operated by the rental car companies.
Moving the rental car companies to the north side of the airport and consolidating them into one building will dramatically reduce rental car traffic on Harbor Drive, as well as the number of shuttle buses competing with passengers getting to and from the airport.
“With this facility, we’re helping to ease congestion on Harbor Drive while reducing the airport’s overall carbon footprint,” said Thella F. Bowens, the Airport Authority’s resident and CEO.
The official ribbon cutting ceremony for the center was held Friday.
Once it opens on Wednesday, 14 brands will operate out of the building, which can accommodate up to 19 brands in total. The facility has room for more than 5,000 cars.
“The new Rental Car Center is the latest example of our commitment to optimizing the passenger experience at San Diego International Airport,” said Airport Authority Board Chair Robert Gleason. “This facility also provides environmental benefits to the community while strengthening the airport’s role as an economic engine for the entire region.”
The center generated approximately 4,600 construction jobs, with $186 million in construction contracts, according to the Airport Authority.
Cubic to Demo Firearms Training
Systems at Las Vegas SHOT Show
Cubic Corp.’s global defense unit will join a National Shooting Sports Foundation-hosted trade show in Las Vegas to exhibit several firearms training platforms.
The company will demonstrate its PRISim Suite of firearms simulators, QuickRange pre-fabricated shooting range, Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System, Cubic NEK’s live training platforms and Live-Fire Range Design at the SHOT Show.
Brooks Davis, business development manager at Cubic’s global defense unit, said the company works to provide firearms training platforms for security and law enforcement professionals.
Davis noted that the company currently conducts final tests on its new PRISim training platform, which works to help firearms users improve their judgement skills and marksmanship through the use of interactive video scenarios.
The SHOT Show runs today through Friday.
New NASSCO Expeditionary Ship
Named for WWII Marine Hero
Times of San Diego
The Navy’s newest expeditionary sea base, a specialized ship for Marine operations under construction at NASSCO Barrio Logan, will be named the USNS Hershel “Woody” Williams.
During the campaign on Iwo Jima in World War II, Williams picked up a 70-pound flamethrower and walked ahead of his infantry’s tanks for four hours clearing their path of enemy machine gun fire. President Harry S. Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor two years later for his actions.
Williams is the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the Battle of Iwo Jima. The ship was named in his honor at a ceremony Thursday in his birthplace of Charleston, WV.
The new 784-foot-long vessel will feature a 52,000-square-foot flight deck for helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft, fuel and equipment storage, repair spaces, magazines, and mission-planning spaces.
Able to accommodate up to 250 personnel, the new ship will support multiple missions, such as mine counter measures, counter-piracy operations, maritime security operations, humanitarian aid and disaster-relief missions, and crisis-response operations.
The ship is being built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego and will be delivered to the Navy in 2018. NASSCO launched the first vessel in the class, the Lewis B. Puller, last year.
Grand Opening Set for New
Chula Vista Townhomes
San Diego-based private equity firm Pathfinder Partners LLC and developer Lanshire Housing Partners LLC will hold the grand opening for their recently completed Bahia Vista Townhomes — a 21-unit community in Chula Vista’s Marina District — on Saturday, Jan. 23. The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and includes a catered gourmet taco lunch and live music.
To date, 11 units have been sold and 10 remain available for purchase. The remaining townhomes are a mix of three- and four-bedroom units priced from $389,900.
Pathfinder acquired the one-acre parcel in 2013 and completed construction this past December. The project is comprised of four, three-story Mediterranean style townhome buildings — with 13 three-bedroom/three-bathroom units and eight four-bedroom/three-bathroom units, ranging from 1,600 to 1,800 square feet. Each unit features a private front entryway, a balcony and a direct access, two-car garage.
The community features a common area with a secured gated entrance, guest parking, a paved trail encircling the perimeter, an open park with a “tot lot,” barbecue and seating areas.
The townhomes are being marketed and brokered by The Blu Summit Real Estate Group.
Richard Unger Elected Chief of Staff
At Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla
Physicians at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla have elected anesthesiologist Richard Unger, M.D., as the new chief of staff of the 444-bed campus, which includes the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute.
During his two-year term, Unger will serve as medical staff liaison to Scripps La Jolla’s administrative staff and Scripps Health’s board of directors.
Unger said he plans to look for more ways to streamline medical staff activities that provide physicians more time with their patients, and he wants to emphasize the benefits of close collaboration and communication among the hospital’s various staffing teams..
Unger has been a member of the medical staff at Scripps La Jolla since 1987 and has held numerous medical staff leadership positions including chairman of anesthesiology, and has been a member of many committees including those for physician wellbeing and ethics.
