Daily Business Report-May 4, 2016
Artist’s rendering of the South Campus Plaza at SDSU that is scheduled for completion this year.
SDSU’s Student Housing Project
to Include Retail Shops, Restaurants
To Serve Campus and the Public
South Campus Plaza, a mixed-use project slated for completion this year at San Diego State University, will include housing for more than 600 students and feature two restaurant tenants that will open in 2017 to the general public — Eureka! and Trader Joe’s.
Eureka! will occupy a 4,000-square-foot space on the north end of South Campus Plaza with outdoor dining overlooking new green space in the project. The location will be Eureka! Restaurant Group’s second in San Diego, the first being in University Towne Center.
The announcement by San Diego State said Eureka! “specializes in American classics with a modern twist with its diverse selection of signature appetizers, all natural, Angus chuck burgers, innovative salads, hand-crafted sandwiches, delectable desserts and a selection of craft beers and American-made spirits.”
“Eureka! provides the surrounding residential neighborhood along with students, faculty administrators and alumni an authentic place to dine, drink and socialize while enjoying special weekly events such as our live music, steal the glass and weekend brunch,” said Justin Nedelman, co-CEO of Eureka! Restaurant Group. “We intend to become anchored to SDSU for all of their events and activate our enormous almost 3,000-square-foot patio adjacent to the park area as a central gathering spot for everyone off and on campus in the area.”
The retail component of South Campus Plaza will include other restaurants and retail shops. Negotiations with future tenants are ongoing. The outlets are designed to serve both the campus and surrounding neighborhoods.
“Eureka! is an example of the high-quality, year-round restaurants and retail that South Campus Plaza will bring to the College Area,” said R.D. Williams, director of commercial development for Aztec Shops. “While new to SDSU, Eureka! has a strong following at its restaurants adjacent to campuses throughout the West.”
South Campus Plaza is located immediately south of the SDSU Transit Center, between Hardy Avenue and Montezuma Road.
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Illumina Reports Year-to-Year Drop in Profits
By City News Service
Illumina, the San Diego-based manufacturer of genomics devices, reported first-quarter net income of $89.6 million, or 60 cents per diluted share.
The company recorded net income of $136.7 million in the first three months of last year, or 92 cents per diluted share, it said Tuesday.
The decline in the company’s profit came despite a hike in first-quarter revenue of about $33 million, to $571.8 million. That improvement was offset by higher costs for overhead, and research and development, according to company data.
“As we have previously shared, (the first quarter) was a slower start to the year than we expected,” said Chairman and CEO Jay Flatley.
“Our view of the growth potential of the sequencing market remains unchanged, as the largest opportunities are in their earliest stages of development,” Flatley said. “In the near-term, we are focused on improving execution to restore the growth rate we believe our markets can support.”
The company projects revenue growth of around 12 percent this year.
County’s $5.3B Budget Plan Targets
‘Safety Net for Most Vulnerable’
By City News Service
A $5.35 billion proposed budget for the County of San Diego was presented Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors for the next fiscal year.
“I’m proud to say the budget is balanced, fiscally responsible and focused on continuous improvement and stewardship of public resources,” said Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer.
While the total budget for fiscal year 2016-17 is 1.2 percent below the previous year, that number is deceiving because of a decline in spending for the Health and Human Services Agency, resulting from an agreement that transfers collective bargaining responsibilities for In-Home Supportive Services to the state, she said.
“County services are not being cut, in fact, quite the opposite,” Robbins-Meyer said. “This year’s budget targets the safety net for our most vulnerable populations.”
The Health and Human Services Agency is budgeted for an extra $88 million — with more than half going to a planned expansion of contracted community services and the rest for hiring 240 employees.
“We’re enhancing support for individuals with mental illness and looking to provide stability for the homeless mentally ill,” Robbins-Meyer said. “We’re increasing services for veterans and we’re adding diversion programs to reduce the number of young people involved with the juvenile justice system and helping victims of human trafficking.”
The budget blueprint includes spending boosts for most areas of county government to cover pay raises, higher retirement costs and additional staffing. The county expects to boost employment to a total of 17,378 employees.
“It’s really impressive to see the additional personnel that are coming in, particularly in the Health and Human Services Agency to further bolster a lot of the programs and services we run,” Supervisor Greg Cox said.
Spending on capital projects is set to drop by nearly half, or $67.5 million. County spending on infrastructure construction varies widely from year- to-year, depending on where various projects are in the pipeline.
“I want to thank the staff for the great job,” said Supervisor Dave Roberts. “I know how much work putting a budget together is and trying to have competing priorities with scarce resources.”
The county uses a two-year budgeting procedure for its operational plan. Staff recommended a $5 billion spending plan for the 2017-18 fiscal year.
Public hearings on the spending plan are scheduled to begin June 13, with final budget deliberations by the board set for June 28.
Barnharts Donate $100,000 for Athletic
Rehabilitation Center at UC San Diego
Local businessman and philanthropist Doug Barnhart and his wife Nancy have donated $100,000 to establish the Douglas Barnhart Athletic Rehabilitation Center at the University of California San Diego. The new space will be located in the Alex G. Spanos Athletic Performance Center, which was opened in October of 2015.
The gift will be split to create an endowment for the Athletic Rehabilitation Center, as well as to provide current use funding for the greatest needs of the Spanos Athletic Performance Center.
“We are so grateful to Doug and Nancy Barnhart for their generous support of the new Athletic Rehabilitation Center,” said UC San Diego Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards. “This new state-of-the-art center will help ensure the health and well-being of our student-athletes, and provide the necessary tools for them to play at their optimal level of performance.”
The endowment will provide funding to outfit and maintain the Athletic Rehabilitation Center, including equipment to support training and recovery for students to reach their optimal health and athletic performance. Several pieces of equipment in the center can be used for non-impactful cardio activity, helpful for athletes to maintain their fitness and muscle mass, without aggravating current injuries. The space will also feature bikes that use biofeedback technology to measure whether a rider is applying the same pressure on both legs. The center also features a hydrotherapy pool, which can be used by all student-athletes to aid in faster post-exercise recovery.
“We are pleased to support this project which will have a positive benefit on UC San Diego’s student-athletes,” said Doug Barnhart. “It is demanding to be a student-athlete and get through college, so our hope is that this gift will help keep these students healthy, thriving and performing at their best.”
In addition to establishing the Barnhart Athletic Rehabilitation Center, the Barnharts’ support will also provide current use funds to help meet the greatest needs of the Spanos Athletic Performance Center, which is home to the new Athletic Rehabilitation Center. The gift will provide funding for audio and video components throughout the building, as well as support for UC San Diego Athletics’ nutrition center, which provides guidance and tools to ensure that student-athletes receive proper nutrition to perform and compete at their highest level.
Doug Barnhart co-founded Barnhart Reese Construction, Inc., with his daughter Tamela Barnhart Reese and his son-in-law, West Reese, a UC San Diego alumnus of 1994. Doug Barnhart is also the former CEO and chairman of Barnhart Construction, Inc., the largest locally-owned construction management company in San Diego and the sixth largest educational builder in the nation.
Connecticut Firm Acquiring
San Diego-Based Vericare
MedOptions, a Connecticut-based provider of behavioral health services to skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, is acquiring San Diego-based Vericare, the second largest behavioral health clinical care provider in the United States.
The combined business will be the sole national provider of outsourced behavioral health services to long-term care facilities and will serve more than 180,000 beds across more than 1,500 facilities.
MedOptions and Vericare each provide a similar integrated behavioral care model to deliver services to a primarily geriatric population. Services are provided through an interdisciplinary team of clinicians.
HLM Venture Partners is the lead investor in Vericare and will become an investor in MedOptions as a result of the transaction.
“We are very excited about this new partnership with MedOptions. Our combined organization will create a national footprint of exceptional clinicians providing great care to the long-term care facilities we serve,” said Cindy Watson, CEO of Vericare.
PSA Flight 182 to be Revisited
At Grossmont College Forum
Grossmont College history instructor Martin Ennis will present an evening of film, lecture and discussion on May 10 about PSA Flight 182, the Sept. 25, 1978 midair collision with a Cessna aircraft in San Diego that killed 144 people and scattered wreckage across North Park.
The event is from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Grossmont College, 8800 Grossmont College Drive in El Cajon.
It is still the deadliest air crash in the history of California and was the deadliest in the country at the time. All 135 people aboard the PSA Boeing 727-214 perished along with two in the Cessna and seven people on the ground. Nearly two dozen homes were damaged or destroyed.
“It was the worst day in San Diego history and most of my students are too young to know anything about the devastation that rained down from the skies that day,” said Ennis, who has arranged for crash victim relatives, first-responders and witnesses to the tragedy to be on hand at the Griffin Gate presentation to give firsthand accounts of what they saw and experienced.
The event is free and open to the public.
Excerpts from two films, “Return to Dwight and Nile,” and “Air Disasters: Collision Over California,” will be shown.
A speakers’ panel will feature:
• Fred Hall, a PSA executive who knew the crew and was on the scene of the crash.
• Myra Sulit Pelowski lost her brother in the crash. He was flying to attend his first day at UC San Diego and never made it.
• Luisa Lococo lost her mother in the crash.
• John Mercer, a rookie police officer who spent 12 hours at the site.
• Bill Nemec, another police officer who was at the crash site.
• Michael Bagnos, a 14-year-old St. Augustine High School student at the time he witnessed the crash and the aftermath. He still lives in the same home, four blocks away from the crash site.
• Bryan Swopes, an aviation expert who wrote an article about the crash.
