Daily Business Report-Nov. 8, 2019
Rendering of Legacy International Center’s hotel exterior.
Morris Cerullo’s Legacy International Center
set to open in Mission Valley this winter
Evangelist Morris Cerullo’s long-planned but controversial religious tourism and conference center project — Legacy International Center — is to be unveiled this winter in Mission Valley.
The $131 million project was approved by the San Diego City Council in 2017 over the objections of the local gay and lesbian community, who raised traffic concerns. It covers an 18-acre site formerly used by the Mission Valley Resort.
“San Diego has been my home since 1959 and I’m thrilled to bring this vision to life in such a beautiful and vibrant community,” said Cerullo in a prepared statement. “San Diego is an incredibly diverse city and we look forward to welcoming people of all cultures, faiths, and backgrounds to experience the Legacy International Center.”
The acreage includes five buildings, including a 126-room hotel and conference center, the International Experience Center, a 500-seat performing arts theater, and a 110-foot-long Western Wall, made from authentic Jerusalem Gold limestone from Israel that will pay tribute to the famed Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
Among the features of the project:
- An 18-foot-tall interactive globe that gives visitors the chance to learn about different cultures — a feature that won the “2019 Product of the Year” at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas.
- A series of galleries that offer immersive stories told in two- to three-minute increments via floor-to-ceiling video projections.
- A 4-D, 100-seat motion theater, conceived by former Disney Imagineers, where guests can experience “Wings Over Israel,” a full sensory “hang gliding” tour of Israel complete with sights, sounds and scents.
- An underground maze of stone chamber catacombs where massive original works of biblical art by world-renowned 3-D illusion artist Kurt Wenner will line the walls.
- A curated botanical garden for moments of quiet reflection.
- An open-air plaza – The Legacy Plaza, will serve as the center’s gathering place for visitors.
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Home prices picked up in
October in San Diego County
The price of resale homes in San Diego County ticked up in October, according to housing statistics compiled through the San Diego Multiple Listing Service by the
Greater San Diego Association of Realtors.
The median price of single-family homes rose by more than 3 percent in October compared to September, reaching $665,000. The increase was coupled by a slowdown in single-family home sales by just under 5 percent month over month. However, sales were higher than October of last year by about 2 percent.
Similarly, attached properties (condominiums and townhomes) saw a more than 2 percent increase in the median sale price in October compared to September, standing at $429,000. Sales of condos and townhomes were 2 percent lower month over month, and nearly 4 percent lower than October 2018.
In October, the ZIP codes in San Diego County with the most single-family home sales were:
92028 (Fallbrook) with 54
92021 (El Cajon) with 50
92128 (Rancho Bernardo East) with 43
92027 (Escondido East) with 41
92127 (Rancho Bernardo West) with 40
The most expensive single-family property sold in October in San Diego County was a 6,115-square-foot home perched above the Del Mar Racetrack with views of the ocean and lagoon. The new construction has five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and sold for $10.5 million.
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The Race to Stay Ahead of Wildfires
UC San Diego matches increased fire danger with improved monitoring capability
By Robert Monroe, Jan Zverina and Liezel Labios | UC San Diego News Center
As if to keep up with the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires throughout California, a network of wildfire-spotting cameras grew from 35 stations last year to more than 300 as of late October.
The ALERTWildfire system co-developed by UC San Diego is one of several products created by the university that are improving the technological capability of western states to deal with wildfires now that the once-rare catastrophic events are becoming commonplace.
ALERTWildfire joins projects such as WIFIRE and UC San Diego research studies that consider everything from the geographic extent of respiratory health problems caused by wildfires to the tension between the government entities that pay for disasters and those that set building codes in high-fire danger zones. Now that worst-case scenarios appear to be a new mainstay for the foreseeable future, the focus is on minimizing the damage as early as possible.
“Every fire starts out small,” said Neal Driscoll, a geoscientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “If we can get on top of them in their incipient phase, we have the opportunity to stay on offense.”
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SDG&E to equip local schools, parks, and
beaches with electric vehicle charging stations
San Diego Gas & Electric will equip some of the most frequented community facilities in the region – schools, parks, and beaches – with approximately 340 EV chargers, under two newly approved electric vehicle charging infrastructure programs.
This is the latest in a series of initiatives undertaken by SDG&E to expand EV charging to make it easier for more people to switch to zero-emission transportation, which is key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
The California Public Utilities Commission gave SDG&E the green light to implement two public charging pilot programs at approximately 50 sites: one pilot (authorized under Assembly Bill (AB) 1083) will bring chargers to 22 state beaches and state, city and county parks; the other (authorized under AB 1082) will bring chargers to 30 schools and other educational institutions, including K-12 campuses, vocational schools, community colleges, and universities.
For more information, visit SDGEnews.com
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Legacy donating $100,000 in digitizing kits
for wildfire victims to protect photos, movies
Legacybox, an innovative and secure, mail-in solution for digitizing invaluable home movies and photos, announced that it is donating $100,000 in digitizing kits to families in Southern California to save memories otherwise lost to natural disaster threats.
As part of the company’s natural disaster preparedness efforts, Legacybox will be donating 200 20-Item Legacybox kits to residents in at-risk wildfire communities so family history, experiences and legacies can live beyond times of uncertainty.
Legacybox said it has pioneered an industry standard for digitizing millions of invaluable memories trapped in VHS tapes, camcorder tapes, aging film reels, photos and slides, combining experiences of the past, with the technology of today, to make it easy and safe to preserve and share recorded moments for generations to come.
Southern California residents can register for a Legacybox digitizing kit online by visiting Legacybox.com/disaster-relief.
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San Diego East County Chamber
schedules a community celebration
The San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce will present “Celebrate East County,” a community celebration event, from 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Holy Trinity Church Social Hall, 405 Ballard St., El Cajon. “Celebrate East County” will include exhibit booths featuring local East County businesses, along with food samples, wine and beer from local restaurants, wineries and breweries, plus live music from two nostalgia bands. Live music will include performances from “Summer of Love,” a ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s band, and “British Mania,” a Beatles tribute band. Tickets start at $25 per person. VIP tickets for early admission are $35 per person. This is an age 21-and-older event.
“Celebrate East County is an event to highlight the outstanding people and businesses who are part of the East County community,” said Rick Wilson, CEO, East County Chamber. “We’re inviting everyone to come enjoy the music, food and see the excellence that East County has to offer.” For ticket information, contact the East County Chamber of Commerce at www.eastcountychamber.org, or (619) 440-6161.
