Daily Business Report-Aug. 3, 2016
Artist’s rendering of homes in Lilac Hills Ranch.
Supervisors Place Lilac Hills Ranch
Project on the November Ballot
County supervisors Tuesday officially placed the proposed 1,700-home Lilac Hills Ranch project initiative on November’s ballot for a countywide vote.
Supervisors voted 4-0 after hearing a county study outlining differences between the project ballot initiative that voters will consider and the project that county planners evaluated.
Supervisor Bill Horn, whose district includes the Valley Center area where the project is proposed, recused himself after the California Fair Political Practices Commission advised him he could have a conflict of interest because he has property in the area.
Supervisors said at their July 19 meeting that they were inclined to put the initiative on the ballot. However, they wanted the county’s Planning and Development Services department to put together an impact report for voters.
The analysis compares the initiative version of the project to both the county’s existing general plan and the version of the project that the county’s Planning Commission recommended the Board of Supervisors approve, with changes and modifications, in September 2015.
Lilac Hills Ranch’s backers submitted the project to the county for review and processing in 2012. After the Planning Commission recommended the board approve the project with changes in September 2015, the project’s developer announced they would seek signatures to put the project on the ballot. The county’s Registrar of Voters certified last month that Lilac Hills had qualified as an initiative.
That gave supervisors two possible actions under state elections law — to adopt the initiative project in whole, or place it on the ballot.
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$4.3 Million Bequest Establishes
New Scholarship at UC San Diego
The late Mary Andrews Haag has left more than $4.3 million from her estate to establish The Frederick and Mary Haag Scholarship Fund at the University of California San Diego.
The scholarship bequest was directed from the Mary Andrews Haag Trusts to provide scholarships for outstanding UC San Diego undergraduates. Haag was a longtime San Diego resident and philanthropist. She died in November 2014, at the age of 92.
Per the donor’s wishes, The Frederick and Mary Haag Scholarship Fund will provide merit-based scholarships to UC San Diego undergraduates. Haag wanted her gift to help attract students “of outstanding academic ability” to UC San Diego.
The new scholarship will support students like Katie Hutchins, who recently graduated in June. While at UC San Diego, Hutchins discovered that she could pair her love for sports and activity with a career that helps people. The physiology/neuroscience graduate now plans to attend physical therapy school. Yet, without scholarship support, UC San Diego might not have been a reality for Hutchins. “I’ve been working since I was 13 or 14 and saving up. But the scholarship I received really made it possible,” she said.
Haag had a longtime affinity for UC San Diego, which is consistently ranked by Washington Monthly as the top university in the nation based on the positive impact the university has had on the country. Haag was born in Troy, Kansas in 1922. She attended business school in Wichita and went on to work for Boeing. She met J. Floyd “Andy” Andrews and they married in 1944. After World War II, the couple moved to San Diego. Mary worked as an executive secretary at Convair (bought out by General Dynamics). In 1949, Andy co-founded Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), which was later purchased by US Air. After 44 years of marriage, Andy died in 1989.
In 1992, Mary met widower, Frederick “Fred” Haag. They married a year later. Fred Haag was born in Germany, but his family was forced to flee their home during World War II. Fred became an American citizen, formed the Haag Linen Company and invested in commercial real estate. He died in 2007.
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City Council Approves
Buyer for Truax House
The San Diego City Council on Tuesday unanimously authorized the sale of the city-owned property that includes the Truax House to Nakhshab Development and Design Inc. for $2.5 million. The property is at 540 W. Laurel Street and 2513/2515 Union Street.
The buyer intends to preserve, restore, and memorialize the Truax House. The proposal includes dedicating the ground floor of the Truax House as a community center, with communal courtyard space, and working with the adjacent property owners to provide public access to Maple Canyon. The Truax House was recently designated as historic by the city’s Historical Resources Board at the July 28 meeting.
Nakhshab intends to pursue a project that would replace the non-historic house at 540 W. Laurel St. with a new mixed use building including a coffee shop, office space, and residential units, including 10 percent of units to be qualified very low income housing. The proposal indicates the project will be sustainably designed.
The Truax House is named after San Diego LGBT leader Dr. A. Brad Truax, and was used as a hospice to serve AIDS patients. Truax died of the disease in 1988. Over the years, the building’s condition has deteriorated and repair costs are estimated at over $1.8 million.
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Cubic Awarded $33 Million
To Modernize EASY Card System
Cubic Transportation Systems, a business unit of San Diego-based Cubic Corp., has been awarded a $33 million contract from the Miami-Dade County’s Department of Transportation and Public Works to modernize the Cubic-supplied EASY Card revenue management system and provide 10 years of back office cloud computing and support services.
The systems enhancement project provides a significant technology refresh and expansion of customer services at a fraction of the cost for a new system procurement, officials said. The award includes Cubic’s contactless bankcard and Near Field Communications mobile open payment, as well as upgrades to fare terminals and the EASY Card back office to process account-based transactions for new and easy ways to pay.
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Badiee Development Plans Speculative
Flex Industrial Campus in Carlsbad
Badiee Development, a San Diego-based real estate development firm, has acquired two land parcels totaling 8.4 acres in the Carlsbad Oaks North Business Park with plans to develop a speculative flex industrial campus. The two-building campus named Carlsbad Oaks Innovation Park will total 102,937 square feet.
Badiee Development purchased the two parcels — located on Caribou Court along Whitptail Loop and Faraday Avenue in Carlsbad —from Kilroy Realty for $6 million.
The buildings, measuring 52,824 square feet and 50,113 square feet, will offer a mix of high-finish office and functional warehouse space. Building features include contemporary exterior design and landscaping, grade-level and dock-high loading, 26-foot clear height, mezzanine space, high visibility from major thoroughfares, and outdoor areas that maximize elevated views over Carlsbad. Badiee Development plans to break ground in the first quarter of 2017 with completion in the fourth quarter.
Colliers International San Diego Region represented both Badiee Development and Kilroy Realty in the sale. The brokers are Tucker Hohenstein, Mike Erwin and Conor Boyle.
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Wireless West Conference
Set for April 19-20, 2017
The Wireless West Conference that will take place April 19-20 in San Diego next year was created by five wireless associations on the West Coast with the goal of bringing together wireless executives for an educational experience.
The associations involved are Arizona Wireless, California Wireless, Colorado Wireless, Nevada Wireless, and Northwest Wireless.
The conference itself will bring together members of the wireless community from across the country for educational sessions hosted by leading executives and thought leaders, networking events with industry professionals, and exclusive insights on the present and future of wireless.
It will take place at the Marriott Marquis & Marina.
“It’s an exciting time for the wireless industry, with constant innovation, new and improved technology, and increased demands of the consumer. A conference like Wireless West is necessary to provide a forum where companies and executives can join together and immerse themselves in the dynamic world of wireless,” said Janet Rinaldi, president of the Colorado Wireless Association.
For more information, visit WirelessWestConference.com
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Change-of-Command Set for
Fleet Readiness Center Southwest
By City News Service
A change-of-command ceremony is scheduled next week at a major aviation maintenance center at Naval Air Station North Island, the Navy announced Tuesday.
Capt. Craig Owen will relieve Capt. Timothy Pfannenstein as commanding officer of Fleet Readiness Center Southwest on Aug. 11, according to the Navy.
Pfannenstein served as the facility commander for two years. Owen is his executive officer.
The center overhauls, repairs and modifies Navy and Marine Corps aircraft and their components. In January, a $50 million, 100,000-square-foot helicopter maintenance facility opened at the base, with 30 bays designed to maintain the H-60 Seahawk series of choppers.
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Personnel Announcements
Cavignac Hires Account Administrator
Kay Barron has been hired by Cavignac & Associates to serve as an account administrator within its Commercial Department.
In her new post, Barron will provide support and assistance to the agency’s commercial insurance account managers.
Barron has 26 years of insurance industry experience. Most recently, she served as an account manager for Leavitt of San Diego, located in La Jolla, where she was employed for three years. There, she worked in the agency’s personal lines division handling all aspects of clients’ insurance, from determining their needs to binding, servicing their insurance programs and assisting with claims, when needed.
Previous experience includes having served as account manager for 5th Avenue Insurance in San Diego; account manager for Armstrong / Robitaille / Riegle in Orange, Calif.; and account manager/producer for Williams Insurance in Fullerton.
Jonathan Singer Relocates to Fish & Richardson
Fish & Richardson has announced that Jonathan E. Singer, a life sciences industry leader and trial attorney, has relocated to the firm’s Southern California office based in San Diego. Singer is the head of the firm’s life sciences litigation practice.
A principal with the firm, Singer joined Fish & Richardson in 1997 and was previously based in the firm’s Twin Cities office.
Singer is well-known for representing branded pharmaceutical companies in large, complex cases Life sciences companies also turn to him for cases involving novel legal questions that make new law. One of Singer’s many high profile cases was representing client Mayo Clinic in its groundbreaking, eight-year patent litigation with Prometheus Laboratories that culminated with a unanimous win at the U.S. Supreme Court. The Mayo case is considered one of the most significant patent cases of the last 50 years.
