Daily Business Report-Jan. 27, 2020
Girl Scout cookie box lineup.
2020 Girl Scout Cookie sales program begins
New ‘Lemon-Ups’ cookies include a message
The 2020 Girl Scout Cookie Program began Sunday, with local Girl Scouts rolling out a brand new cookie: Lemon-Ups! Each zesty, crispy cookie will include a message of leadership (like “I am an innovator” or “I am strong”) to inspire girls and cookie customers.
Thousands of Girl Scouts and volunteers in San Diego and Imperial counties are set to participate in the cookie program, the nation’s largest annual financial investment in girls. As cookie entrepreneurs, Girl Scouts practice the goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics that will prepare them for their future as the next generation of female leaders.
All net cookie revenue stays local to fund programs in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), outdoors, life skills, and entrepreneurship. Cookie proceeds also support the financial assistance that keeps Girl Scouting available and affordable for all.
For the sixth consecutive year, Thin Mints, Samoas, Do-si-dos, Trefoils, and Tagalongs are $5 per package, as are the new Lemon-Ups. Two specialty products—Girl Scout S’mores and gluten-free Toffee-tastic—are $6 each because of higher production costs.
All eight cookie varieties have a new look, featuring redesigned packaging that showcases the Girl Scout mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.
Operation Thin Mints (OTM) is a local service project through which cookie customers can support the U.S. military with “a taste of home and a note to show we care.” Since OTM’s inception in 2002, the public has donated more than three million boxes of cookies and countless handwritten notes of support to deployed military troops and local veterans.
Troops will begin hosting cookie booths at stores on Friday, Feb.7.
________________________
Silvia Mah named director of USD’s
Center for Peace and Commerce
The University of San Diego has hired entrepreneur, investor and business accelerator executive Silvia Mah as director of its Center for Peace and Commerce, a partnership between the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies and the USD School of Business that prepares students to make a positive social impact on the world.
In her role as director, Mah will bring her expertise to bear on the CPC’s annual Fowler
Global Social Innovation Challenge, a competition which inspires student entrepreneurs around the world to create sustainable business solutions to global issues.
Since 2011, the Fowler GSIC has connected more than 2,500 students from 17 countries and distributed more than $400,000 of seed funding to the most promising student ventures.
Most recently, Mah was president & COO of Connect w/San Diego Venture Group and is a founding partner of Ad Astra Ventures. Mah is also the founder of Stella Labs, an accelerator for women-owned businesses; founding member of Stella Angels, a female angel investment group; Investment Committee member of Next Wave Impact, a social impact venture fund; and an angel investor to over 30 startups who have diverse founders on the leadership team.
________________________
December San Diego County
jobless rate declines to 2.8 percent
The unemployment rate in San Diego County was 2.8 percent in December 2019, down from a revised 2.9 percent in November 2019, and below the year-ago estimate of 3.1 percent, the state Employment Development Department reported. This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 3.7 percent for California and 3.4 percent for the nation during the same period.
Between November 2019 and December 2019, total nonfarm payrolls increased from 1,538,200 to 1,540,700, a gain of 2,500 jobs. Agricultural employment decreased by 600 jobs, from 8,700 to 8,100.
Between December 2018 and December 2019, total nonfarm payrolls grew by 2.3 percent, from 1,505,900 to 1,540,700. While, agricultural employment levels remained constant at 8,100.
________________________
Endeavor Bank announces extension of
offering period to complete its capital raise
San Diego-based Endeavor Bank has extended the cutoff date to invest in its capital offering from Jan. 24, 2020 to Feb. 21, 2020.
By extending the deadline, the bank anticipates the additional time will maximize the amount of capital it hopes to raise in this capital round.
“We are raising more capital to enable us to grow faster by hiring more producers, and to increase the banks’ legal lending limit in order to better serve our target market. We have a significant number of new investors participating in this round as well as continued support from current investors,” said CEO Dan Yates.
Bank President Steve Sefton said the bank team chose to raise capital using a grass roots approach led by management targeting local business owners rather than institutional investors. “If the offering was completed today, our local shareholder base would increase from the original 452 shareholders to over 600,” said Sefton. “We expect that number to grow by the time we finish the raise. That over 90 percent of our shareholders are locally based provides a built-in affinity group to support the bank.”
________________________
James ‘Scott’ Brown takes helm
of San Diego County Crime Stoppers
San Diego County Crime Stoppers (SDCCS) has named James “Scott” Brown as the organization’s new president. Brown works with Chelsea Investment Corp. the largest affordable housing developer in San Diego County and the 11th largest in the nation. He helps run Chelsea’s project development and acquisitions, which creates affordable housing communities for such nonprofit partners as Father Joe’s Villages, Serving Seniors and the Alpha Project.
The Mission of SDCCS is to partner with local law enforcement agencies, the media, and the public to help solve felony crimes anonymously. San Diego Crime Stoppers was started in San Diego in September of 1984. To date the organization has helped solve more than 6,200 cases including: over 1,900 robbery/assaults, over 150 homicides and assisting in the capture of over 800 fugitives.
Brown’s primary focus over the next two years will be to strengthen the organization through additional fundraising and grant opportunities, a greater public visibility, and moving the Students Speaking Out program into more schools while also adding a training aspect for administrators, teachers, parents and our students. Crime Stoppers remains a nonprofit, charitable organization supported by responsible individuals and businesses that want to make the County of San Diego a safer place to live and work for all.
________________________
East County college district sets
16-year record for clean audits
The fiscal practices of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District have once again received the highest possible rating from independent auditors, marking a 16-year streak of financial transparency.
The accounting firm CWDL audited the 2018-19 fiscal year for the district and the Foundation for Grossmont & Cuyamaca Colleges. It conducted a separate audit of funds from Proposition V, the $398 million bond measure approved by East County voters in 2012.
The auditors noted that their financial review of Proposition V funds was conducted to ensure that expenditures were made in accordance with the project list approved by voters in 2012, and that bond funds were not used for the district’s general operations.
Key projects planned for construction using Proposition V bond funds include Grossmont College’s new Visual and Performing Arts Center, scheduled for completion this spring, and a new Student Services Building at Cuyamaca College, which is set to begin construction this summer.
“The results of our tests indicated that, in all significant respects, the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District has properly accounted for the expenditures held in the Building Fund (Proposition V) and that such expenditures were made for authorized Bond projects,” the auditors wrote.
________________________
Realtors organization hosts reception
for 53rd Congressional District candidates
The Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors’ Government Affairs Committee will host a meet-and-greet reception with candidates in the 53rd Congressional District race from 3:30 to 5 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 30, at the PSAR South County Service Center, 880 Canarios Court, Chula Vista. The public is invited to attend. Admission is free.
The 53rd seat is open due to the pending retirement of Rep. Susan Davis. Davis has held the seat since the district’s creation in 2003. She was first elected to Congress in 2000 in what was then the 49th District.
Candidates appearing on the March primary election ballot have been invited to attend the PSAR reception. Voting by mail begins Feb. 3 and Election Day is a month later.
Some 10 Democrats are certified for the ballot. Leading Democrat candidates include Sara Jacobs, a former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser and member of the Qualcomm-founding family, San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez, policy adviser Joaquín Vázquez, U.S. Navy veteran Jose Caballero and Marine Corps veteran Janessa Goldbeck. Jacobs and Goldbeck have confirmed their attendance, said PSAR officials.
Three Republicans also are certified for the primary ballot: software developer Michael Oristian, licensed nurse Famela Ramos and pilot and Realtor Chris Stoddard.
For more information, call PSAR at (619) 421-7811 or visit www.psar.org.
________________________
Del Mar’s Davidson Communities’ housing
project named ‘Community of the Year’
The national building industry’s most prestigious awards have named the Davidson Collection at Delta Coves on Bethel Island, Calif. as the nation’s Community of the Year, citing elevated architecture, interior design and landscaping in a one-of-a-kind waterfront setting on the California Delta.
Built by Del Mar-based Davidson Communities, the Davidson Collection at Delta Coves was honored at the Jan. 21 National Sales and Marketing Awards, presented by the National Association of Home Builders in Las Vegas. This year’s competition attracted more than 1,300 entries submitted by the best new home builders in North America.
Judges said of the Davidson Collection: “Placemaking, storytelling, great design and execution were the keys to success for this incredible community.”
Davidson Communities opened its 42-home enclave last September when master developer DMB Inc.unveiled the first phase of the 560-home Delta Coves master-planned community. All homes at Delta Coves sit atop a double levee, adjacent to a tranquil manmade lagoon, just four miles from fast water and boating access to San Francisco Bay.
Robert Hidey Architectsof Irvine was the project architect, with interior design and merchandising by Design Line InteriorsInc. of Del Mar. Environmental Foresightof Walnut Creek, Calif. was project landscape architect.
________________________
MiraCosta College to break ground on
new Student Services Building Feb. 13
MiraCosta Community College District has announced the Feb. 13 start of construction of the new Student Services Building at the district’s Community Learning Center Campus in Oceanside. The community is invited to the groundbreaking ceremony at 3 p.m. on Feb. 13.
The new 9,910-square-foot Student Services Building will provide a student-centered facility that consolidates the study areas and socialization spaces, along with staff space, into a single, dynamic environment. The new building will provide an anchor for the new campus quad that will encourage students to interact with the outdoor environments. The design will correct previous space deficiencies in office, library, and instructional media spaces.
The $12.3 million project will include an events terrace, a park and native garden, and a series of bioswales—shallow, open, and typically vegetated channels with gently sloping sides that can be incorporated into landscapes to direct and slow storm runoff and promote pollutant removal.
The project architect is Lord Architecture; Align Builders was awarded the contract for construction last month by the MCCD Board of Trustees. Other project team members include Consulting & Inspection Services as the inspector of record; Kitchell for program and construction management; MTGL, Inc. for material testing and special inspection; and RMA Group for geotechnical services.
