Daily Business Report-March 14, 2016
The makeup room at the Center for Media and Performing Arts at San Diego City College. (Photos above and below by Pablo Mason)
Renovations Completed at City College
Center for Media and Performing Arts
Sundt Construction Inc. has completed $20 million in upgrades to San Diego City College’s Center for Media and Performing Arts building, housing the school’s language, speech and visual arts departments.
Sundt was selected by the San Diego Community College District to complete the 31,000-square-foot project, which provided state-of-the-art upgrades for the school’s programs in dramatic arts, dance, music, digital journalism, digital media, radio, TV and film, along with common areas and associated support space. The facility is equipped with state-of-the-art video editing suites, a newly-designed television studio and newsroom, make-up studio, film screening lab, new dance studios, new music technology lab, electronic piano lab, new scene and set design shop, costume design workshop, and other classroom and lab spaces.
Designed by Roesling Nakamura Terada Architects, the project also included upgrades to an existing suite within the campus’s “L” building to accommodate the college radio station. In
addition to the facility renovations, Sundt provided improvements to the surrounding campus plaza, including new landscaping, hardscaping and lighting. The project, which is part of the district’s $1.555 billion proposition construction bond program to transform campuses and create jobs, is expected to obtain LEED Silver certification.
The $1.555 billion Propositions S and N construction bond program is providing new state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities, major renovations, and campus wide infrastructure projects at City, Mesa and Miramar colleges and six Continuing Education campuses throughout San Diego.
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Kimpton’s Hotel Solamar
Finishes Major Renovation
Kimpton’s Hotel Solamar has completed an $8 million renovation of its first Southern California hotel at 435 Sixth Ave. in Downtown San Diego. The renovations included meeting spaces, lobby and all 235 guest rooms.
New rooms and public spaces of the hotel now showcase Spanish contemporary style designed by Paletteur’s Gino Castaño and David Lasker.
Design elements include woven vinyl headboards and detailed furnishings, with graphic patterns and rich textures.
San Diego influences include surfboard-inspired bathroom mirrors and Mexican tile-inspired wall coverings, in a chic black and white palette. Additionally, most of the new guestrooms now include a sofa for extra seating, creating a mini-suite feel.
“We couldn’t be happier with the renovation and re-launch,” said Shannon Foster, general manager at Hotel Solamar. “As the first Kimpton in San Diego and, particularly in the Downtown neighborhood, we’ve witnessed first-hand this city’s major transformation over the past 11 years. It’s great to be able to now not only offer a stunning new product in the ideal location, but to truly capture the essence of the city as we continue to create genuine guest experiences.”
Hotel del Coronado Being Acquired
By Chinese Insurance Company Anbang
A Chinese insurance company is acquiring the Hotel del Coronado and The Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel as part of a $6.5 billion deal, according to media reports.
Blackstone Group, a New York private equity firm, has agreed to sell its Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., which owns 16 luxury properties, to Anbang Insurance Group, a person familiar with the transaction said Saturday.
The portfolio, according to Strategic’s website, includes the Santa Monica hotel and the famed Coronado hotel, as well as two other Southern California properties — the Montage Laguna Beach and the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel. There are three properties in the Bay Area: the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, the Four Seasons Hotel in East Palo Alto and the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.
Beijing-based Anbang has been investing in luxury U.S. hotel properties, including its acquisition last year of the Waldorf Astoria in New York for $1.95 billion from Hilton Worldwide Holdings.
The deal was first reported by Bloomberg News.
Pro Kids to Honor Peter Ueberroth
Former Major League Baseball Commissioner and Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth will be honored for his lifelong contributions on Saturday, May 7, by Pro Kids | The First Tee of San Diego. The dinner at the Hilton Torrey Pines Hotel in La Jolla will benefit underserved youth. Reception is at 6 p.m. followed by dinner and the program.
“Peter Ueberroth exemplifies the nine core values we promote in delivering character development and life skills to the young people we serve,” said Keith Padgett, Pro Kids’ CEO. “Honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy, and judgment.”
Peter Ueberroth is managing director of Contrarian Group, an investment and management company. He is also owner and co-chairman of the Pebble Beach Company. From 1980 to 1984, Ueberroth was president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, the organization responsible for staging the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. He was commissioner of Major League Baseball between 1984 and 1989.
Learn How to Lobby on Climate Change
UC San Diego Extension will offer a two-month course starting March 30 that will teach the public how to lobby government officials to take action on climage change.
The course, “Engaging Government to Save the Planet,” is designed to help educate people on how to effectively participate in conversations on climate change.
A Yale survey conducted in Oct. 2014, found that 13 percent of Americans were alarmed about climate change, 31 percent where concerned, 23 percent were cautious, 7 percent were disengaged, 13 percent were doubtful while 13 percent were dismissive.
Leslie Bruce, director of health care leadership for UC San Diego Extension, said while those in the “alarmed” group are likely taking action, those who identified as “concerned” were not. The course, created with input from leading climate change researchers at UC San Diego and University of San Diego as well as from environmental advocates and government officials, is designed to help spur concerned citizens into action.
“This course will offer up concrete steps on how to engage on the issue and effect change,” said Bruce.
For more information on the course, click here.