Daily Business Report-Oct. 31, 2018
The SPAWAR complex in Old Town. (Navy photo)
Navy seeking companies’ interest
in redeveloping sprawling SPAWAR complex
Eighty-five companies have registered to attend a Navy forum on Monday, Nov. 5, to hear about opportunities to redevelop the 42-acre Space and Naval Warfare Systems (SPAWAR) complex in Old Town and a 24-acre complex on Sports Arena Boulevard.
In September, the Navy issued a Request for Interest on opportunities to redevelop the property, part of Naval Base Point Loma.
Earlier this year, the Naval Inspector General reported a number of safety issues related to SPAWAR’s aging complex, where more than 4,000 employees work. Some windows are cracked, while others are stuck open, attracting pests. In the most northern building, especially, inspectors found workers are exposed to dripping water. Bird feces have rained down from the ceiling.
“We have had employees who have reported health issues that they believe are due to the work environment,” said SPAWAR spokesman Steven Davis in a written statement. “When that occurs, employees are encouraged to seek medical expertise for evaluation. The command is concerned about the health of all employees and ensuring their safety is a top priority.”
During World War II, the SPAWAR complex was used to manufacture aircraft. The open hangers have been converted to office space.
SPAWAR was inspected in 2017. Among the environmental issues listed in the report, SPAWAR installed a system to remove fumes from toxic Trichloroethylene uncovered in one of the hangers. The Navy is also working with state authorities to remove a kerosene tank found on the grounds.
SPAWAR spent $26 million from 2013 to 2016 to upgrade the Old Town campus. Investigators said that was not enough to solve all of the issues.
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California Tower
to undergo seismic retrofit
The California Tower at the San Diego Museum of Man will be temporarily closed to the public when the city of San Diego begins a seismic retrofit of the historic structure. The seismic retrofit has been scheduled to begin in January 2019.
The seismic retrofit is being funded by the city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Construction is expected to last seven to 10 months. The improvements will upgrade the Tower’s seismic capabilities based on the latest seismic building codes, which will help fortify the Tower against potential earthquake damage, preserving the iconic San Diego landmark and enhancing the safety of museum visitors, staff, and the general public.
The museum and many of its exhibits, including “Cannibals: Myth & Reality” and “PostSecret,” will remain open to the public throughout the seismic retrofit during regular hours of operation.
At the completion of the seismic retrofit, the museum will resume regular public tours of the California Tower. The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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Design work starts on renovations
on MiraCosta’s San Elijo campus
Design work has begun for the transformation of a 30-year-old classroom building on the San Elijo campus of the MiraCosta Community College District. The work will include two state-of-the-art computer labs that will prepare students to take advantage of and master 21st century technology.
The renovation and modernization of Building 500, which had housed classrooms, faculty offices, and the campus’ language lab, will include the conversion of existing educational spaces for the two new computer labs, modernizing classrooms, and re-tiling of the roof. The building has stood in its present form since the San Elijo campus was constructed in 1988.
The $3 million redesign and modernization project is funded by Measure MM, the $455 million bond measure approved by district voters in November 2016.
Little is serving as the project architect. Construction is expected to start in June 2019 and be completed by November 2019.
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USS John P. Murtha departs
San Diego for NASA’s Orion mission
The Navy’s USS John P. Murtha departed Naval Base San Diego on Tuesday to perform a test with NASA on the recovery of the Orion spacecraft on its return to Earth. It will be the first time the ship will conduct the operation, called an Underwater Recovery Test (URT), with NASA.
Throughout the history of the program, a variety of San Antonio-class LPD ships have been utilized to train and prepare NASA and the Navy, utilizing a Boiler Plate Test Article (BTA). The BTA is a mock capsule, designed to roughly duplicate the same size, shape, and center of gravity as the Crew Module which will be used for Orion.
NASA and Navy teams have taken lessons learned from previous recovery tests to improve operations and ensure the ability to safely and successfully recover the Orion capsule when it returns to Earth following Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) in December 2019. EM-1 will be an uncrewed flight, whose successful completion hopes to pave the way for future crewed missions and enable future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. NASA plans to conduct two more URT missions before EM-1 takes place.
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SBA kicks off National
Veterans Small Business Week
The U.S. Small Business Administration will celebrate the accomplishments of veteran, service member and military spouse small business owners nationwide during National Veterans Small Business Week, Nov. 5-9.
The SBA San Diego District Office will be participating in local events celebrating and educating veterans
Nov. 2 —13th annual Honor Our Veterans Parade and Ceremony in Chula Vista.
Nov. 8 — Meet the Buyers: Honoring Veteran Owned Businesses, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Carlsbad.
This year’s theme, “Our #VetBiz Community,” shines a spotlight on various aspects of the veteran business community, ranging from aspiring to current veteran and military business owners, as well as the organizations that provide entrepreneurial training.
The SBA encourages veterans, service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and military spouses to join the online conversation and share what their veteran business communities look like by using the hashtag #VetBiz.
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California Pacific Airlines
launches West Coast service
California Pacific Airlines (CPA) announced that its inaugural West Coast service will begin Thursday with the first flight taking off at 7 a.m. from McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad and arriving at San Jose International Airport at 8:15 a.m.
CPA will initially offer service to San Jose and Reno-Lake Tahoe, Nev. On Nov. 15, it will add service to Las Vegas, and additional western routes will be announced in the future.
“North County residents now have an easily accessible and affordable alternative to San Diego International Airport when traveling to popular business and leisure destinations along the West Coast,” said John Barkley chief financial officer of California Pacific Airlines. “Nearly a decade after we developed a plan to introduce a California based commercial airline, the vision has become a reality.”
CPA will initially operate 50-seat, Embraer ERJ145 aircraft on the four nonstop routes. The scheduled, commercial-service flights will operate from the passenger terminals at airports in San Jose, Reno, and Las Vegas.
CPA is operated by Aerodynamics Inc., a certified FAA 121 air carrier.
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Salk’s Clodagh O’Shea receives
Distinguished Investigator Award
Clodagh O’Shea, a professor in Salk’s Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar, has been selected as a recipient of The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group’s Allen Distinguished Investigator (ADI) program. She will be awarded $1.5 million over three years to conduct research into how DNA and its associated proteins (known collectively as chromatin) are packaged in the nucleus of cells. The work has implications for better understanding not only a range of diseases but also the fundamentals of human biology.
“Clodagh’s research into chromatin is causing biologists to rethink a longstanding paradigm about how the genome is organized,” says Salk President Rusty Gage. “Her development of a powerful new technology to visualize chromatin’s 3D structure in living cells launches what promises to be a revolutionary new way to understand DNA. We are thrilled to have her exciting and groundbreaking work supported by The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group.”
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Personnel Announcements
McCullough Landscape Architecture hires three new staff members
McCullough Landscape Architecture Inc. announces the addition of three new staff: Nabyl Macias, senior associate; Armando Silva, associate; and Nicole Hensch, marketing and administrative assistant.
Nabyl “Naby” Macias’ expertise is creative integration of landscapes and social interaction—working on large-scale city planning, urban design, mixed-use development, civic centers, residential development, office campuses, office retrofits, and commercial centers throughout the U.S., China, Indonesia, and Mexico.
Armando Silva, a collaborative team player, is an experienced designer in civic development, urban design, master planning, education, sports
and recreation, and housing. His passion for music has led him to study the landscape as a theoretical arrangement of musical notes. He sees the landscape through a punk rocker’s vision: loud (expressive), fast (ephemeral) and out of control (nature).
Nicole Hensch, a recent graduate of CalState University Northridge, with a Bachelor’s in Communication Studies, began her career in marketing and administrative support at Bert L. Howe & Associates Inc., a construction consultant firm in Anaheim, as a support of operations associate. At McCullough she assists in business management, human resources, and support of marketing activities.
