Daily Business Report-Oct. 22, 2019
Sesame Place illustrations courtesy of SeaWorld Entertainment.
San Diego to host the first Sesame
Place theme park on the West Coast
The first Sesame Place theme park on the West Coast will be in San Diego, opening in the spring of 2021, and designated as a Certified Autism Center, according to an announcement by SeaWorld Entertainment and Sesame Workshop.
Sesame Place San Diego will be located on the site of the current Aquatica San Diego.
“The opening of Sesame Place San Diego will give guests a unique and powerful way to experience Sesame Street, enable us to connect with even more families, and further our educational mission,” said Steve Youngwood, COO of Sesame Workshop.
Sesame Place San Diego will feature family rides, water slides, live character shows, parades and interactive experiences.
The original Sesame Place, currently the only U.S. theme park based entirely on the iconic children’s program, opened outside Philadelphia in July 1980.
Sesame Place San Diego will open as a Certified Autism Center, mirroring its Philadelphia sister park, which was the first theme park in the world to achieve this designation. Staff-wide autism sensitivity and awareness training will be completed prior to the park’s debut, and pre-visit planning resources, including a park-specific sensory guide will be featured on its website, making it easier for parents to plan activities that satisfy their child’s specific needs and accommodations. Designated quiet spaces with adjustable lighting and comfortable seating will be incorporated into the park’s design.
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San Diego’s Bank of Southern California acquires
CalWest Bank of Rancho Santa Margarita
San Diego-based Bank of Southern California and CalWest Bancorp announced an agreement to merge. Bank of Southern California’s all-cash offer of 0.43 cents per CalWest share puts the value of the transaction at $32 million. Closing is expected in the first quarter of 2020. CalWest Bank will merge with and into Bank of Southern California.
According to the banks’ announcement, the merger combines two Southern California franchises with similar core operating philosophies and cultures. Bank of Southern California currently operates 11 branch locations and one production office in San Diego County, the Coachella Valley in Riverside County, Orange County, and Los Angeles County. CalWest Bank is headquartered in Rancho Santa Margarita with three branches located in Orange County and one office located in Redlands.
The proposed merger with CalWest Bank follows Bank of Southern California’s acquisition of four-branch Glendale-based Americas United Bank in July 2018, providing Bank of Southern California with its first expansion opportunity into the desirable Los Angeles market.
Upon completion of the transaction, the combined organization will have pro forma assets of approximately $1.1 billion and combined capital of approximately $120 million.
“The combined bank offers a highly attractive franchise for us in the dynamic Orange County market and furthers Bank of Southern California’s vision of expanding our market share in Southern California,” said Nathan Rogge, president and CEO of Bank of Southern California.
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Carlsbad medical office building sells for $4.85 million
A 6,350-square-foot medical office building in Carlsbad has been sold for $4.85 million to 2020 Cassia. The seller was Midwest Investment Properties LLC.
Located at 2020 Cassia Road, the building is currently divided into three suites, each with its own exterior entrance. The building is slated to become a future Otolaryngology office, offering medical and surgical treatment of ear, nose and throat disorders in adults and children.
Colliers Internation San Diego Region represented the seller in the transaction.
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World Trade Center San Diego
leads trade mission to Germany
Ahead of the U.K.’s impending departure from the European Union, World Trade Center San Diego, the international affiliate of San Diego Regional EDC, is leading a delegation to Frankfurt and Munich, Germany. The trade mission will lay the groundwork for San Diego companies to develop long-term business relationships with the European market.
The delegation departed on Monday and will return on Friday.
“With the launch of Lufthansa’s non-stop service from San Diego to Frankfurt and a shift in economic power resulting from Brexit, Germany will become an increasingly important trade and investment partner for San Diego,” said Nikia Clarke, executive director of World Trade Center San Diego and vice president of economic development at San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation. “If San Diego wants to be recognized as a global economic player, it is important that we continue to show up and develop partnerships with markets that buy our goods and invest in our economy.”
Germany is currently the fourth-largest economy in the world, and is increasingly becoming one of San Diego’s most vital trading partners. According to data collected by World Trade Center San Diego, German-based companies, including Kontron, Evotec and BioNTech, directly employ more than 2,700 individuals in San Diego.
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Callaway Golf partners with NBA star Stephen Curry
to make golf more accessible to underserved youth
Callaway Golf Company in Carlsbad has entered into a partnership with three-time NBA champion Stephen Curry with a focus on expanding the golf game by making it more accessible to underserved and underrepresented youth.
Last month, Curry helped Howard University launch its first Division 1 Golf Program set to debut by the 2020 academic year, with a pledge to fund the university’s men’s and women’s programs for the next six years.
“We’ve found an incredibly likeminded partner in Stephen,” said Chip Brewer, president and CEO of Callaway Golf. “His love of golf is something we at Callaway immediately connected with. And over time we realized we shared much more than that: a vision to create opportunities for access to the sport for people that might not have it. With our support, Stephen is uniquely positioned to create meaningful experiences in golf.”
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Powerful new genomics method can be used
to reveal the causes of rare genetic diseases
A team led by a scientist at Scripps Research has invented a new genomics technique for tracking down the causes of rare genetic diseases.
The technique, which the researchers report in Science, makes use of the fact that people inherit two copies or “alleles” of virtually every gene, one from the mother and one from the father. The new method compares activity levels of maternal and paternal alleles across the genome and detects when the activity of an allele lies far enough outside the normal range to be a plausible cause of disease.
The researchers demonstrated their technique by using it to reveal disease-causing genes in patients with rare muscular dystrophies.
“Adding this method to our toolkit should allow us to detect the causes of rare genetic diseases for some of the cases in which standard methods fail,” says study first author
Pejman Mohammadi Dassistant, an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research.
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UC San Diego at epicenter of earthquake research
From the world’s largest outdoor earthquake simulator to an international network of seismic stations, UC San Diego is a living laboratory for seismic safety. Researchers across campus are trying to improve the understanding and detection of earthquakes; provide immediate information about damages sustained after an event; and improve the safety of structures to better withstand major earthquakes.
The UC San Diego Englekirk Structural Engineering Center in Scripps Ranch has been home to the world’s largest outdoor earthquake simulator, also known as a shake table, since 2004. This fall, construction will start on a major upgrade of the facility, funded by a $16.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
In the past 15 years, research at the shake table has led to important changes in design codes for commercial and residential structures and new insights into the seismic performance of geotechnical systems, such as foundations. The facility also has helped validate the use of innovative technologies to make buildings more likely to withstand earthquakes.
