Daily Business Report-July 24, 2020
The Midway Sports & Entertainment District team’s plan. (Image courtesy of Midway Sports & Entertainment District)
Commentary
Public benefits define Midway proposal
for the San Diego Sports Arena property
By Frank Wolden, Aruna Doddapaneni and Colin Parent
San Diegans are facing a big choice on the future of the Midway-Pacific Highway community. Our plan, the Midway Sports & Entertainment District, is squaring off against a proposal from Brookfield Properties/ASM Global for the development of the 48-acre Sports Arena site. The decision by Mayor Kevin Faulconer, which is expected in the next few weeks, will have a profound impact on the community’s ability to advance the vision of the Midway Community Plan adopted two years ago. For many reasons, we believe our plan – a plan created for San Diego by San Diegans – and our team is the best choice.
First, our plan is anchored by a 12-acre public park. We started with a major open space idea as we sculpted our plan, and it has now rightfully emerged as the soul of the project. In contrast, the Brookfield/ASM Global plan has five dispersed acres of green space. Commercial development is a known traffic generator of any project. The Brookfield/ASM Global plan is anchored by 590,000 square feet of commercial in an already congested area. The Midway Sports & Entertainment District plan includes about 300,000 square feet of commercial.
Second, we describe a specific program for reinventing and modernizing the Sports Arena. It was developed by designers with extensive experience in arena design and development. In contrast, the competing proposal does not address the redevelopment of the Sports Arena.
Third, we are long-time San Diegans, and this project was built by us and our team members, with a specific focus on creating a great place for San Diegans. It is a plan that grows out of a history of the site, an understanding of the adjacent land uses – today and projected – and an appreciation of what makes our city and our lifestyle so special. Our goal to create a vibrant platform for San Diego’s love of fitness and healthy living could only thrive in this location.
Fourth, we lead with soccer. As Warren Smith, CEO of the San Diego Loyal is fond of saying, “San Diego is the Soccer Capital of North America … it just doesn’t know it yet.” Building a new home for SD Loyal, albeit a temporary one for seven to 10 years, plus the addition of other pop-up uses, will jumpstart the project and allow the community to engage with the Sports Arena site in a transformational way.
Fifth, our plan can be achieved without a public subsidy. No taxpayer dollars are required. The Midway Sports & Entertainment District plan includes prevailing wage for all construction trades and on-site affordable housing, both of which add significantly to overall development costs. Our team believes these community benefits can be delivered by structuring a public-private partnership with the city that appropriately balances the costs and rewards of the project.
Finally, the only way our plan or the competing one will be achieved is if the current 30-foot height limit is removed from the Midway area. The City Council is expected to put the question before voters this November, so we all will be asked if we want to remove the long-standing barrier to improving the Midway District. Our plan is anchored by a new centralized 12-acre park, which will help the ballot measure succeed rather than turning voters off by offering them a massive traffic-generating development with no local flavor.
Our plan is backed by a master developer, Toll Brothers, with decades of experience and an impressive balance sheet that answers any viability questions our competition raises. Saying Brookfield is more capable than Toll of making the project happen is like saying Jeff Bezos is more capable of buying a Maserati than Elon Musk. Maybe, but both can afford one.
A one-developer approach is great when building a shopping mall, high-rise or housing tract. But when the community plan lays out a different vision that calls for a bespoke village environment, assembling a collection of talented and experienced architects, developers and collaborators with different ideas and vision is what makes the Midway Sports & Entertainment District authentic and the right fit.
We’re offering San Diego so much more than viability. The best stuff about our plan is all the public benefits. A 12-acre park. Soccer. A music hall. A modernized arena. It’s the best plan because it was created for San Diego by San Diegans.
Frank Wolden is a principal of AVRP Skyport. Aruna Doddapaneni is senior vice president of BRIDGE Housing Corporation. Parent is executive director of Circulate San Diego. This article originally appeared in Voice of San Diego.
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Bad news for Chula Vista: it won’t
be home to a new CSU campus
Cal State Chula Vista is not going to happen, city officials learned Wednesday, dealing a blow to the South County city’s decades-long efforts to attract a four-year public university.
The California State University Board of Trustees this week released a report saying that none of the proposed five locations for a new campus – including Chula Vista – are viable based on enrollment demand. The other locations were Concord, Palm Desert, Stockton and San Mateo County.
Over the next 15 years, CSU enrollment is projected to increase moderately, not enough to justify spending between $2 billion and $4 billion on a new campus, according to the report.
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Modular Crisis Stabilization Unit
completed for Palomar Health
RAD Technology Medical Systems announced the completion of its most recent project, a standalone Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) for Palomar Health. Construction of the facility was completed in June and by July 2 it was treating patients.
The (CSU) provides short-term care for patients in the North County region experiencing an acute psychiatric and/or substance abuse crisis. Having this facility now open will provide much needed services to mental health patients in a less restrictive environment, freeing Emergency Department beds and improving community safety.
RAD, a design-build construction company specializing in patented modular building systems, began onsite construction last fall.
“The first modules were placed on the foundation in November of 2019 and approximately six months later the entire project was completed and receiving patients,” said Mike Kosinski, RAD director of field operations. “Our unique technology and offsite construction methods allow us to complete the facility rapidly and with minimal disruption.”
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Governor discloses plan to open
California mask manufacturing plant
Gov. Gavin Newsom disclosed this week that he’s in talks with Honeywell and other companies to open a California mask plant and create hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs.
Meanwhile, California has sent 17 million masks to Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Alaska despite an influx of hospitalizations in Southern California and Central Valley counties that workers say have strained resources.
“It would have been wrong for me to sit on 100 million masks … and not help American citizens in real need. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep well at night,” said Newsom.
Newsom unveiled a $316 million contract for 420 million masks with BYD, the Chinese manufacturer with whom the governor struck a controversial and highly publicized $1 billion deal in April. BYD missed several delivery deadlinesafter initially failing to earn mask certification from federal health officials.
—From CalMatters reports
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Ethnic studies, social justice classes to be
required at Cal State University campuses
CalMatters
California State University students must take an ethnic studies or social justice class in order to graduate following a CSU trustee vote Wednesday that marks the first change to the system’s general education requirements in four decades, the Los Angeles Times reports. The requirement — which would go into effect in 2023 — is now on a crash course with a bill lawmakers are expected to pass next week, CalMatters reported. The bill has a narrower focus and would require CSU students to take an ethnic studies class in order to graduate. If passed by the Legislature and signed by Newsom, it would override the trustees’ vote.
Trustee Rebecca Eisen: “If we were in a different state, we would be scared out of our wits by the idea that the Legislature would be telling us what we should be teaching.”
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Scripps Institution of Oceanography partners
with NOAA for unmanned systems research
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and Scripps Institution of Oceanography are partnering to improve how unmanned systems are used to collect important ocean observations and augment NOAA’s operational capabilities.
This 10-year agreement provides a framework for Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations’s new Unmanned Systems Operations Program to collaborate on specific projects to further unmanned systems research, development and operations.
One of the first projects under this partnership includes developing recommendations for the structure, staffing and training needs of the unmanned maritime systems component of the new Office of Marine and Aviation Operations program. The project also includes the design, outfitting and testing of a persistent, unattended unmanned surface vessel with a meteorological and oceanographic data payload to collect operational data.
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Novel ‘On-Off’ switch discovered in plant defenses
Protective mechanism paves the way to improve
plant disease resistance and food stability
By Mario Aguilera | UC San Diego
To ensure survival, living organisms are equipped with defensive systems that detect threats and respond with effective counter measures.
Plants are known to mount quick defenses against a variety of threats—from attacking insects to invading pathogens. These intricate immune response mechanisms operate through a complex network that plant biologists have sought to untangle.
Crucial to these defenses is the timing and duration of immune responses. Humans are equipped with a strong and rapid inflammation response that is essential to ward off disease, but chronic and persistent inflammation can be harmful to our health. Similarly, plants feature defenses that are timed for rapid and effective responses against pathogens, yet tightly controlled to avoid threatening the host organism.
Keini Dressano, Alisa Huffaker and their colleagues at the University of California San Diego’s Division of Biological Sciences have discovered a critical “on-off” switch in the plant immune response system. As described July 20 in their report published in Nature Plants, they identified a new regulatory switching mechanism—an RNA-binding protein—that helps turn on immune responses a few minutes after attack. Hours later, the switch follows with a deactivation “off” signal to avoid self-inflicted damage to the plant.
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S.D. Women’s Week Leadership Conference Goes Global
New virtual format with no boundaries features Daymond John, Linda Cureton, Ed Smart, Amy Trask
San Diego Women’s Week, celebrating 11 years of inspiring, empowering and connecting women is now virtual with leadership events for all ages and professions. Attendees enjoy virtual networking, keynote speakers, panel discussions, and more, all wrapped around creative solutions to everyday issues affecting leaders in the workplace and in their daily lives.
WHEN: Wednesday, Aug. 26 – Friday, Aug. 28, 2020
WHO: Keynotes for 2020 Leadership conference include:
- Daymond John from Shark Tank: Powershift, Transform Any Situation, Close Any Deal, and Achieve Any Outcome.
- Linda Cureton, Former CIO – NASA: Managing and Leading in a Tough Environment.
- Ed Smart, Father of Elizabeth Smart: Two Miracles, and Standing up for Yourself.
- Amy Trask, Former NFL Team Executive – Los Angeles Raiders: Leadership Vulnerabilities.
WHERE: Wednesday – Virtual Women and Wine 6-7:30 p.m.
Friday – Virtual Leadership Conference 8:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Click here for complete list of speakers and additional details.
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Joe Anfuso hired as asset manager
Tower 16 Capital Partners
Encinitas-based Tower 16 Capital Partners announced it has hired Joe Anfuso, a 15-year veteran in the real estate investment industry, as an asset manager for Encinitas-based Tower 16 Capital Partners to oversee its multifamily assets throoughout the Southwest.
Prior to joining Tower 16, Anfuso was the director of acquisitions and asset management for Presidio Residential Capital, a real estate private equity firm located in San Diego. During his seven years with the company, he was responsible for sourcing and managing the company’s residential equity investments throughout the western United States.
Previous to Presidio, Anfuso worked for TriPacific Capital Advisors where he was responsible for managing the firm’s western region investment portfolio on behalf of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association. Anfuso has also held positions with Chelsea Investment Corporation, an affordable housing developer, as well as Fairfield Residential, a nationwide multifamily owner/operator.
Anfuso earned a master’s degree in real estate from the University of San Diego and a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance from Northern Arizona University.
