Daily Business Report-July 20, 2018
Rendering of El Capitan High School Events Center. Construction contract to be awarded on Aug. 4, construction to start Sept. 4. (Photos credit:GUHSD)
Summer construction boom starts
in Grossmont Union High School District
Summer construction in the Grossmont Union High School District funded through the district’s voter-approved Proposition U and Measure BB, is providing for nearly a dozen construction projects underway now, and six others getting ready to bid. The summer projects total about $12 million in campus facility modernizations and upgrades.
Projects include the addition of security cameras across the district; construction of new physical education facilities, event centers, student support services facilities, and multi-purpose facilities; numerous modernization projects, painting, and paving and flooring repairs.
Additional summer projects include the completion of photovoltaic installations as part of the district’s solar energy initiative. The solar initiative is just one of the numerous energy conservation and utility management initiatives and is expected to return utility cost savings in excess of $70 million over 25 years.
Using funds from Proposition U, Measure BB and state Proposition 39, campuses throughout the district have undergone modernization and upgrade activities, resulting in: the outfitting of dozens of classroom buildings and other facilities with high-efficiency heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units; the installation and retrofit of high-efficiency lighting throughout the district; demolition of six outdated buildings to make way for new, state-of-the-art classroom buildings, event centers, and student support services facilities; and the installation of solar carports at eight campuses.
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First crowds jam Convention Center
on opening day of Comic-Con
The San Diego Convention Center on Thursday welcomed the first crowds attending the 2018 Comic-Con, an event that brings guests from more than 80 countries around the world.
Comic-Con, which runs through Sunday, generates the most regional impact of any event hosted at the San Diego Convention Center, all year. This infographic shows the estimated economic impact this year’s premier pop-culture phenomenon brings.
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NASSCO to modernize USS Higgins
destroyer under $89 million Navy contract
ExecutiveBiz
A General Dynamics subsidiary has won a potential $89.1 million contract to help the U.S. Navy implement an extended dry-docking restricted availability effort for the USS Higgins guided missile destroyer.
NASSCO will modernize, repair and maintain the Arleigh Burke-class ship for the service branch, the Defense Department said.
The Naval Sea Systems Command will obligate $72.5 million in fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance and “other” procurement funds at the time of award, with $58.9 million of the obligated amount slated to expire by the end of the current fiscal year.
Work will take place at the contractor’s shipyard in San Diego and is scheduled to be complete in September 2019.
NAVSEA received two bids for the project via a full and open competition on FedBizOpps.
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Supreme Court says ‘no’ to California split
California voters won’t get a chance to split California in three this November. Despite gathering the requisite number of signatures, Proposition 9 was ordered stripped from the 2018 ballot by the California Supreme Court Wednesday. That quashes Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper’s latest effort to chop up the Golden State.
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The Scripps Research Institute
expands faculity with 5 new members
The Scripps Research Institute announced the addition of five new faculty members who bring diverse expertise to the Institute’s bicoastal scientific research operations. The scientists, who include four women and one man, join an organization that the journal Nature Index recently ranked the #1 nonprofit research institution in the United States for producing “high quality research.”
The additions expand Scripps Research’s faculty to nearly 220 members, split over two campuses. Two of the new researchers will be based at the institute’s La Jolla campus:
Silke Paust will join the Department of Immunology and Microbiology as an associate professor. Her work encompasses the development and testing of immunotherapies that elicit clinically relevant natural killer cell-mediated antiviral and antitumor immunity.
Lisa Racki, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology, will join the Integrative Structural and Computational Biology Department as an assistant professor. She studies how bacteria remodel their subcellular architecture to cope with starvation.
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Tails for Predator B Series
aircraft to be built in the UK
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. and GKN Aerospace have declared their intent to collaborate on composite tails for GA-ASI’s Predator B Remotely Piloted Aircraft series via a Letter of Interest signed on Tuesday.
GA-ASI has been partnered with GKN Aerospace’s Fokker business unit in the Netherlands since 2016 for production and sustainment of Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper landing gear subsystems. In April of this year, GKN Aerospace Deutschland and GA-ASI entered into a Technical Assistance Agreement to expand GA-ASI’s carbon-composite manufacturing capabilities significantly by manufacturing major aerostructures for MQ-9B SkyGuardian, the latest evolution of the multi-mission Predator B, in Germany.
Following the successful completion of the required technical and commercial evaluations and agreement, GA-ASI also intends to perform composite manufacturing for Predator B tail structures at GKN facilities in the UK.
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Northrop Grumman delivers
BACB-equipped Global Hawk to Air Force
Earlier this year, Northrop Grumman Corporation delivered a Global Hawk autonomous aircraft carrying the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) to the U.S. Air Force fleet. BACN — also developed by Northrop Grumman — is a high-altitude, airborne gateway that translates and distributes voice communications, and other battlespace information from numerous sources.
BACN bridges the gaps between those systems and extends communications among disparate users and networks to provide improved situational awareness.
BACN has completed more than 10,000 combat missions connecting warfighters in the air and on the ground.
Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, strike, and logistics and modernization to customers worldwide.
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Personnel Announcements
Julia Grant and Pauline Martinson join The San Diego Foundation
Kevin Hamilton joins Foundation board
The San Diego Foundation announced the hiring of Julia Grant and Pauline Martinson to assume director of development positions.
Grant will work directly with donors to help increase the impact of their charitable giving and achieve their philanthropic goals. She will be responsible for cultivating relationships with philanthropists new to The San Diego Foundation and strengthening current donor and fund advisor relationships. Prior to joining The Foundation, Grant served as director of development at UC San Diego Health Sciences and as senior associate director, major gifts at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
Martinson also will work directly with donors to help them increase the impact of their charitable giving and achieve their philanthropic goals. Leveraging more than a decade of nonprofit development and relationship-building with San Diego donors, she will help grow philanthropy in the region. Previously, Martinson served as executive director of I Love A Clean San Diego, where she worked with environmentally-minded philanthropists and community leaders to help preserve and enhance San Diego’s natural environment.
Kevin Hamilton, adviser for Rosemont Investment Partners LLC, joined The San Diego Foundation Board of Governors, beginning a three-year term that started July 1.
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Catherine Puckett joins Bank of Southern California
Bank of Southern California N.A., a community business bank headquartered in San Diego, has hired Catherine Puckett as vice president, business development manager. She will be responsible for expanding Bank of Southern California’s business banking client base by actively seeking new business opportunities in the San Diego region.
Puckett has more than 14 years of experience in business development in the San Diego market. Prior to joining Bank of Southern California, she held a similar role at First Foundation Bank.
Puckett holds a bachelor’s degree in international business from San Diego State University, and an international business degree from ESSEC Business School in France.