Daily Business Report-Nov. 30, 2017
SDSU Mission Valley Campus looking North. (Renderings Courtesy of Carrier Johnson + Culture)
San Diego State Outlines Ambitious
Plan for Mission Valley Stadium Property
San Diego State University on Wednesday unveiled “SDSU Mission Valley,” a detailed vision and plan for 166 acres of land at the former Qualcomm Stadium site. The plan includes housing for upper-division and graduate-level students, faculty and staff, along with workforce and affordable housing; a new multiuse stadium for collegiate athletics, professional sports, and other entertainment events; commercial office buildings to include innovation and research space; visitor-serving hotels and neighborhood-serving retail uses.
The site plan also features community parks, open space, and recreation fields, accounting for more than 50 percent of the site.
The university is able to purchase the land at fair market value and finance the construction, should it have the opportunity to do so. The plan does not rely on taxpayer dollars.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand the university in a location that is both close to the main campus and large enough to accommodate the university’s growth needs,” said SDSU President Sally Roush. “It is a plan with the heart and spirit of a modern university campus that will serve higher education and the community’s aspirations for the site.”
“The concept of SDSU Mission Valley is grounded in the guiding principles of creating a true ‘campus feel,’ community engagement, economic return for the region, financing feasibility for the university, and transparency,” added site plan consultant and project manager John Kratzer, CEO of JMI Realty. “Part of our role as experienced private sector developers is helping guide the public-private partnership aspect, which is at the core of the plan.”
According to Roush, the university is not daunted by the size and scope of the development plan. “Over the past five years, SDSU has developed more than half a billion dollars in capital projects,” she said. “Whether it is through public-private partnerships, or bonds that would be paid back by revenue generated through the development, we have the resources for the purchase and development of this land.”
The plan features architectural renderings by Carrier Johnson + Culture..
Click here to view the full SDSU Mission Valley site plan and architectural concepts.
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Leading Economic Indicators for
County Up in September and October
The USD Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators for San Diego County rose 0.2 percent in September and another 0.6 percent in October. For October, the gain was led by a huge rise in the outlook for the national economy. There were more modest gains in initial claims for unemployment insurance, local stock prices, and consumer confidence. The only negative component was building permits, but they were down only slightly. Online help wanted advertising was unchanged.
With the gains in September and October, the USD Index has now increased or been unchanged for an entire year. The outlook continues to be for positive but slower growth for the local economy at least through most of 2018. A review of the local economy through the third quarter of 2017 shows an increase of 23,300 wage and salary jobs compared to the same period in 2016. In contrast, wage and salary jobs increased by 35,800 in all of 2016 compared to 2015. So growth in San Diego’s economy has already slowed.
The sectors with the biggest increase in jobs are government (+6,200 jobs), health care (+5,000), construction (+4,300), real estate (+1,600), and finance and insurance (+1,200).
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San Diego Named Among Best Places
for Service Members and Military Families
The city of San Diego is being recognized as one of the best places for improving the quality of life for members of the military and their families. The Association of Defense Communities named the San Diego region to the 2018 class of Great American Defense Communities.
“San Diego’s history is intertwined with the military and we have a long tradition of supporting our active duty and veteran military members, their families and the civilians who also serve on our bases,” said Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “This national recognition is a credit to the citizens of San Diego, businesses, nonprofit organizations and universities who all do their part to work with, care for, and support our military community.”
Home to the world’s largest concentration of military, the San Diego region has been shaped by strong relationships with active duty service personnel, veterans and their families. More than 106,500 active duty Navy and Marines are stationed in San Diego. Additionally, more than 233,800 military veterans reside in the San Diego region.
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Bicycle Advocates to Showcase High-Tech
Electric Bikes in Group Ride to Balboa Park
Community leaders in San Diego will join bicycle and environmental advocates on Friday in a special event designed to showcase the latest in high-tech electric bicycles and Rider Safety Visibility technology in a round-trip group bicycle ride from North Park to December Nights in Balboa Park.
The event will begin at 4 p.m. at North Park Main Street Association, 3939 Iowa St. with comments from event managers and officials, followed by a round-trip group bicycle ride designed to demonstrate alternative transportation, climate action solution to one of San Diego’s biggest events — December Nights, which draws over 350,000 people over two nights.
Officials will transport state-of-the-art electric bicycles with integrated front and rear lights, outfitted with the latest in new rider safety visibility technology, including LED helmets with integrated brake and turn signals; day and night time running lights; high visibility clothing and commuter bags; and other RSV technologies that are effective at ensuring that bicyclists increase their visibility in an era of distracted driving.
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Air Force Picks Tyndall AF Base as
MQ-9 Reaper Wing Location
ExecutiveGov
The U.S. Air Force has selected Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida as its preferred location to house a new military wing along with 24 units of the General Atomics-built MQ-9 Reaper remotely controlled aircraft.
Tyndall’s MQ-9 Reaper Wing will comprise an operations group that will have mission control elements and launch-and-recovery platforms, as well as a maintenance team, the Air Force said.
Air Force secretary Heather Wilson said the service branch wants Tyndall to serve as homebase for the new RPA wing because of the location’s air space, nearby training ranges and weather.
The selection aligns with the Air Combat Command’s efforts to propagate MQ-9-related assignment opportunities under the Culture and Process Improvement Plan.
Wilson could hand down a final basing decision once an environmental analysis of the Tyndall base is completed, the Air Force noted.
The service branch projects that MQ-9s will arrive at the final selected base in 2022 and the airmen who will operate the aircraft in 2020.
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State and Local Leaders Break Ground
on San Elijo Lagoon Restoration Project
San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy, San Diego Association of Governments and Caltrans joined local and state leaders Wednesday at the San Elijo Lagoon Nature Center in Encinitas to break ground on the $102 million restoration of the San Elijo Lagoon.
The San Elijo Lagoon Restoration Project, also known as the Reviving Your Wetlands Project, is part of the first phase of construction for the North Coast Corridor (NCC) Program, known as Build NCC. The groundbreaking is the result of two decades of grassroots planning and a collaboration between the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy, Caltrans, SANDAG, local cities, resource agencies, and community members.
Phase I of a three-year effort will include:
- Clearing vegetation and constructing a series of dikes along the main lagoon channel and inlet to control water elevations and turbidity.
- Creating a 40-foot deep overdredge pit in the central basin. Approximately 450,000-cubic yards of high-quality sand will be removed and used for beach sand replenishment at Fletcher Cove and Cardiff State Beach.
- Refilling the overdredge pit with lagoon sediment.
Work includes dredging various channels within the lagoon to increase tidal flow and improve the overall health of the lagoon, establishing new wetland habitat for the lagoon’s diverse wildlife, and creating new pedestrian trails within the lagoon.
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San Diego County Fair Claims 25 IAFE Awards
The 2017 San Diego County Fair cashed in on 25 awards from the International Association of Fairs and Expositions (IAFE) during the IAFE’s “Striking it Rich” annual convention and trade show awards ceremony Wednesday in Las Vegas.
“We are honored to receive this level of recognition from the International Association of Fairs and Expositions,” said Tim Fennell, CEO of the Del Mar Fairgrounds. “We make it our mission each year to put on the best fair possible, providing new, exciting entertainment, educational and agricultural opportunities for each person who walks through the front gates.”
The IAFE represents more than 1,100 fairs throughout the world and promotes the development and improvement of agricultural fairs, shows and expositions.
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Personnel Announcements
Allison Bechill Named Executive Director
of San Diego Continuing Education Foundation
Allison Bechill has joined the San Diego Continuing Education Foundation as executive director. Bechill’s professional background includes more than a decade of nonprofit leadership and development with RELX Group (formerly Reed Elsevier), Casa Cornelia Law Center and most recently as the associate director at Just in Time for Foster Youth, which works with former foster youth throughout San Diego County.
Bechill is a graduate of the University of San Diego’s Nonprofit Leadership and Management Master’s program, and also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from Hamilton College. She previously served as a board member for the San Diego Council on Literacy and the Juvenile Court Book Club, and is a former Murray Galinson Fellow with the San Diego chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Initial priorities for Bechill will be growing contract education and developing and managing a comprehensive advancement program to raise funds for annual student scholarships.
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Meagan Verschueren Joins CaseyGerry as Associate
CaseyGerry, a San Diego based plaintiffs law firm, announced the addition of Meagan L. Verschueren as its newest associate attorney. Verschueren started out as a CaseyGerry legal clerk in 2015 and also worked for the firm as a contract attorney.
In her new role as a full time associate, Verschueren will work with partner Robert J. Francavilla on cases in the areas of catastrophic personal injury, product and premises liability, aviation litigation, wrongful death, elder abuse litigation, and more.
Since joining the CaseyGerry team, Verschueren has participated in all aspects of litigation — from client intake meetings to trial. She has been instrumental in resolving catastrophic personal injury cases involving severe burns, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and permanent disabilities — obtaining millions of dollars for her clients.
Before joining CaseyGerry, she worked as a law clerk at San Diego firms Schonfeld & Bertsche LLP. and Webb & Bordson APC.
Verschueren earned her J.D., cum laude, from California Western School of Law in San Diego. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from University of Tampa.
She is currently a board Member of Tom Homann LGBT Law Association, and is the chair of the Membership Committee, the vice-chair of the Dinner Committee, and participates in its law student mentor-mentee program. Additionally, Verschueren works closely with the Lawyers Club’s LGBT Task Force as a committee member. She is a member of Consumers Attorneys of California, Consumers Attorneys of San Diego, American Association for Justice, and the National LGBT Bar Association.
