Daily Business Report-July 10, 2020
The UC San Diego MRSEC center provides sustained research and educational opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students, with a particular focus on transfer students. (Photos by Erik Jepsen/University Communications)
NSF awards UC San Diego $18 million
to fund new Materials Research Science
and Engineering Center
The National Science Foundation has awarded University of California San Diego researchers a six-year, $18 million grant to fund a new Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC).
These research centers are transformative for the schools that earn them, putting their materials science research efforts into the global spotlight. In addition to research and facilities funding, MRSEC centers provide sustained research opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students, and resources to focus on diversifying the pool of students studying materials science.
The UC San Diego labs funded by this new MRSEC will focus on two important, emerging approaches to build new materials aimed at improving human lives.
The first research theme is all about developing new ways to control the properties of materials during their synthesis by controlling how they transition, from the smallest atomic building blocks to materials that are large enough to see with the human eye.
The second research theme is focused on creating hybrid materials that incorporate living substances—microbes and plant cells—in order to create materials with new properties.
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Big Bet: Why the country’s largest pension
fund is getting into banking
CalMatters
Facing hundreds of billions of dollars in looming debt coupled with the pandemic’s economic devastation, the country’s largest pension fund is betting on a risky new investment strategy in the hope of making big bucks.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System last month approved a plan to act like a bank by lending money to private companies and placing more funds in complex financial arrangements, CalMatters’ Ben Christopher reports.
A lot’s at stake: If the investments don’t pan out, taxpayers and public workers will be saddled with more of the debt. Meanwhile, the agency is also pushing a bill that would limit access to information about its private loans.
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Former Midway Post Office
finally set for demolition
The long-vacant central post office in Point Loma, on Midway Drive, is finally slated for demolition, the first step in an eventual redevelopment for new housing. (NBC 7)
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Two San Diego County nonprofits receive millions
of dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program
More than 400 nonprofits nationwide —— including the La Jolla Institute for Immunology and the Avid Center in San Diego — received loans of $5 million to $10 million through the Paycheck Protection Program, the largest amount any organization could receive, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy analysis of government data.
The La Jolla Institute for Immunology received the funds for its medical laboratories.
Avid Center received money for its professional and management development training.
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Hyatt to expand Alila brand in Americas
with first new-build resort in Encinitas
Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced plans for the first new-build Alila resort in the Americas, located in Encinitas.
Developed by JMI Realty and Fenway Capital Advisors, Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas will add to Hyatt’s Alila brand portfolio, joining Ventana Big Sur, an Alila Resort, as the brand’s second hotel in California and the U.S., along with 14 other luxury properties worldwide.
Situated along coastal bluffs and overlooking Grandview and South Ponto Beaches, Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas will be a luxury oceanfront hotel with 130 guestrooms, including 16 suites. Expected to open in early 2021, the resort will offer an ocean-view restaurant with rooftop patio, a pool with pool bar and an infinity-edge hot tub, a luxury Spa Alila and wedding and events venues, all with panoramic Pacific Ocean and lagoon views.
Hyatt also announced Bob Harter as the new resort’s director of sales and marketing. Harter oversees the resort’s sales and marketing efforts while developing business strategies designed to successfully open the resort, drive revenue and exceed the resort’s business goals. Harter brings more than 25 years of experience in hospitality management and is a veteran sales and marketing leader in the San Diego’s luxury hotel market, most recently, serving as director of sales and marketing at L’Auberge Del Mar.
Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas was designed by San Diego-based Joseph Wong Design Associates. Interior design was by Mark Zeff Associates.
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Runway Growth Capital LLC
opens San Diego office, secures loan
Runway Growth Capital LLC, a lender of growth capital to both venture and non-venture-backed companies, announced the launch of its San Diego office and close of a senior secured term loan of $30 million with Intact Vascular, a developer of medical devices for minimally invasive peripheral vascular procedures. This is the first transaction originated by Runway’s San Diego office.
Under the direction of Rob Lake, managing director and head of the life sciences practice, Runway’s San Diego office is to become the central hub of the company’s national health care and life sciences offering.
Lake recently joined Runway from Bridge Bank to found the company’s first dedicated life sciences practice. The launch of the San Diego office and origination of its first loan with Intact Vascular is the culmination of Runway identifying opportunities in the life sciences ecosystem and a focus on diversifying the company’s portfolio.
Intact Vascular is the developer of the FDA approved Tack Endovascular System, designed to repair multiple types of dissections following peripheral balloon angioplasty.
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Illumina launches TruSight Software Suite
to accelerate identification of genetic diseases
Illumina Inc. said it is bringing turn-key data analysis solutions to accelerate and facilitate the adoption of whole-genome sequencing with the launch of the TruSight Software Suite.
TruSight Software delivers ready-made infrastructure to realize the full potential of whole-genome sequencing for rare genetic diseases.
The company said this new offering enables sample-to-report analysis for genetic disease testing, giving customers an integrated solution that focuses on one of the most challenging parts of the workflow, empowering researchers to go from 5 million variants to a small handful, in a rapid, scalable way. TruSight Software will make it easier for people to benefit from the valuable insights enabled by genomic sequencing.
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Rob Hutsel, president and CEO of San Diego
River Park Foundation, receives Stewardship Award
Rob Hutsel, president and CEO of The San Diego River Park Foundation, is the recipient of the 2020 Stewardship Award presented by the San Diego chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
The Stewardship Award recognizes local leadership that has contributed significantly to environmental progress, vision, and stewardship or a combination of these items.
After a sewage spill dumped 34 million gallons of sewage into the San Diego River in 2000, Hutsel co-founded the San Diego River Park Foundation, which has had a tremendous impact on the health and well-being of the San Diego River watershed as well as the larger community of San Diego.
Hutsel’s tireless activism within the foundation has inspired a renewed commitment within the San Diego Community to protect and enhance therRiver as a place for recreation, habitat, and nature discovery.
Hutsel has helped galvanize a broad range of support for protecting the San Diego River Basin, including championing the successful passage of the San Diego River Park Master Plan and the subsequent River Park Legacy Endowment Fund.
His impact spans both the personal and political fields including volunteer programs, political advocacy, education centers, and public outreach.
Said Brett Allen, ASLA president, of Hutsel, “His work is healing the river watershed habitat and unifying community members around the river through the creation of a comprehensive river park system.”
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A grim talley: Gov. Newsom puts brave
face on California’s COVID-19 surge
Gov. Gavin Newsom tried to reassure Californians Wednesday that “we will get through this,” despite an alarming surge in the state’s coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.
The governor noted that the state is testing more than 100,000 people each day and has the capacity to treat as many as 50,000 patients at a time.
He focused on state and local public health officials’ enormous efforts in recent months to bend the coronavirus’ deadly curve, including amassing large stocks of protective gear for health workers and setting up field hospitals.
But after being the first state to impose a stay-at-home order, California faces a battery of grim statistics as the state reopened – and now is poised to potentially send millions of children back to school next month.
Containing the virus in a state as large and populous as California was always going to be a massive undertaking, requiring planning for counties with more than 10 million people, such as Los Angeles, and those with just over 1,000, like Alpine County to the north.
Epidemiological models for California suggest that COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths will continue to rise statewide in the short term. The daily number of people who need to be hospitalized, now standing at nearly 6,000, could rise to more than 16,000 by Aug. 7, straining hospitals in the state’s hot spots for COVID-19 outbreaks.
On Wednesday, public health officials reported 11,694 new daily cases (including backlogged tests from Los Angeles County), 114 deaths and 6,100 hospitalizations. Three new counties – Napa, San Benito and Yolo – were added to the state’s watch list, which now includes 26 of California 58 counties, including San Diego County. This list includes those counties that see increased transmission and hospitalization for more than three days.
