Daily Business Report-March 17, 2020
High voltage electricity towers and power lines at a substation in Central California. (Photo by Andrei Stanescu/iStock)
SDG&E and other California utilities
suspend customer power shutoffs
Six utilities serving more than 21 million Californians have announced that they will not shut off customers’ power for non-payment as the coronavirus continues to disrupt daily life.
Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Power are taking the step until further notice. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is the nation’s largest municipal utility, will not shut off power or water for non-paying customers until at least the end of March, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District made the same announcement for its power customers.
Utilities usually protect customers who are struggling to pay bills only during major natural disasters.
Power usage could be altered by the pandemic in unexpected ways, said Wes Jones, communications manager for San Diego Electric & Gas. People who are self-quarantining or self-isolating will likely use more power than if they went to a job. Schools are closing across the state, meaning kids could be spending more time at home, too.
It all will likely add up to higher power bills for California customers.
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday asked Internet and cable providers to hold off on non-payment shutoffs, to not charge late fees and to open wireless hotspots for no charge until May 13, 60 days after the request. Most major telecom providers have agreed, according to a memo by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.
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UCLA economists say recession
now underway due to coronavirus
Economists with the UCLA Anderson Forecast said Monday the U.S. economy has entered a recession, ending the expansion that began in July 2009, with California expected to lose 280,000 jobs.
After a solid start to 2020, the escalating impact of the coronavirus pandemic in March will cause gross national product to decline by 6.5 percent in the second quarter, with economic growth not resuming until the fourth quarter of the year, the economists said.
They said California faces a more severe downturn due to its reliance tourism and trans-Pacific transportation. The state is expected to lose more than 280,000 payroll jobs as unemployment rises to 6.3 percent by the end of the year.
The new forecast is based in part on a review of the impact of the 1957–58 H2N2 influenza pandemic on the U.S. economy.
“The revised forecast comes with an important caveat.” the economists said. “If the pandemic is much worse than assumed, this forecast will be too optimistic.”
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IHP and Meridian Communities
to build 97 townhomes in Poway
IHP Capital Partners and Meridian Communities announced a joint venture for the in-fill development of 97 townhomes in Poway.
The new Poway community will feature two- and three-story townhomes designed by the Woodley Architectural Group. The residences will range from 1,330 to 2,270 square feet with up to four bedrooms and two and half baths. Sales are anticipated to begin in late 2020 and prices are expected to start in the low $500,000s.
The soon-to-be-named community will take shape on an in-fill site close to employment centers. The site is set just south of Poway Road at the intersection of Civic Center Drive within the city’s civic area.
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NASSCO, BAE Systems, Huntington Ingalls get
$171.9 million Navy ship maintenance contract
GovCon Wire
BAE Systems’ San Diego ship repair business, Huntington Ingalls Industries and General Dynamics subsidiary NASSCO have received a $171.9 million multiple-award contract modification from the U.S. Navy for ship maintenance services.
The companies will carry out routine, complex, industrial and urgent maintenance as well as modernization work on multiple types of amphibious ships or landing dock vessels within San Diego, the Department of Defense said.
The modification results from the original indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract’s fourth exercised option. Work will take place at respective contractor sites and Naval Base San Diego through March 2021.
Southwest Regional Maintenance Center issued the award.
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Scripps Health launches Nurse Line
dedicated to COVID-19
Scripps Health has launched a COVID-19 nurse line, at 888-261-8431, that connects patients to a team of nurses dedicated to screening people with symptoms associated with the new coronavirus.
Patients with fever and/or respiratory symptoms should call the dedicated phone line first before coming to any Scripps facility. They should not just walk in and should not use the Scripps online scheduling system for appointments.
Anyone who calls the nurse line will be connected to a nurse at the COVID-19 call center who will ask a series of questions designed to evaluate the caller’s potential risk for coronavirus infection. As warranted, the caller will be connected to a provider via video chat for further evaluation.
The nurse line is based at the organization’s corporate headquarters in La Jolla, and is staffed from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.
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Half of California is now in drought
The snowstorm that hit the Sierra Nevadas this weekend wasn’t enough — nearly half of California is in drought, up from 34 percent a week ago, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Scientists are concerned this predicts a summer with high fire danger and a potential drought crisis. The Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of one-third of California’s water, was at 38 percent of its historical average on Wednesday, compared with 92 percent on Jan. 1.
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Cal State San Marcos to celebrate grand
opening of Viasat Engineering Pavilion
Cal State San Marcos will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon on Friday, March 20 to celebrate the grand opening of the university’s Viasat Engineering Pavilion.
The pavilion is named in honor of the Carlsbad-based company that provided a $1.5 million gift to become the founding partner of CSUSM’s electrical and software engineering programs. Viasat’s gift helped the university renovate classroom and lab space, purchase new equipment and instrumentation, and support the work of students and faculty.
CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt, Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg and CSUSM College of Science and Mathematics Dean Katherine Kantardjieff are among the scheduled speakers for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
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Scripps Research scientists tackle
COVID-19 epidemic from many angles
Scripps Research Institute scientists are pursuing multiple lines of research aimed at understanding and helping to mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus behind the COVID-19 epidemic that has spread across the globe. They are tracing how the virus originated and spreads, exploring how it invades the body and how the immune system responds, and working to develop potential vaccines and medicines against the virus.
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10th annual NAIOP University
Challenge to be virtual in 2020
The 10th Annual NAIOP University Challenge will take place in April, but it will take place in a virtual format this year due to COVID-19. Real estate teams from the University of San Diego, University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University will present their respective cases “virtually” via Zoom conferencing to a panel of industry judges in late April.
The USD undergraduate real estate team, comprised of Shannon Bergen ’20, Lauren Classon ’20, Lukas “Jack” Foy ’20, Timothy “Tim” Hemmesmeier ’20, Hannah Schraeger ’20 and Nick Toffoli ’20, are preparing to defend USD’s 2019 first place title in this highest and best use real estate case competition.
Each team will analyze the highest and best use of a proposed development site in San Diego County. For the 2020 NAIOP challenge, the site to be analyzed is Tecolote Village, a mixed-use property, located at the Tecolote Road Trolley Station, at the Southwest quadrant of West Morena Boulevard and Tecolote Drive, just east of I-5.
According to NAIOP San Diego, there will not be a NAIOP event gathering of industry professionals to hear the team cases in person this year due to COVID-19. The winning team will be announced in late April.
