Daily Business Report-Sept. 4, 2020
Rendering of UC San Diego’s Pepper Canyon Amphitheater, courtesy Safdie Rabines Architects
Development of UC San Diego’s
‘campus grand entrance’ moving forward
BNBuilders is building a new “front door” for UC San Diego. With the addition of two light rail transit stations coming to the La Jolla campus, a new grand entrance is underway featuring the $41 million Design and Innovation Building and the $50 million Pepper Canyon Amphitheater and Public Realm project.
The Design and Innovation Building, the first building visitors will see upon entering the campus, topped out in June; while the Pepper Canyon Amphitheater and Public Realm project, which will create a lively campus gathering space and an overall flow to the re-imagined area, will break ground this month.
The Design and Innovation Building will be a 74,000-square-foot building situated at the south edge of the existing Structural and Materials Engineering Building, and just north of the future Light Rail Transit station. The building will contain numerous workspaces that can be easily reconfigured to host programs, meetings, multidisciplinary instruction, and studio learning to enhance the collaborative and innovative activities which are currently distributed across the campus. The building was designed by EHDD of San Francisco.
The Pepper Canyon Amphitheater will have fixed seats with additional bench and lawn seating, for a total of 2,800 seats. The Amphitheater includes a covered stage, back of house support spaces, public restrooms, freight lift, and permanent AV and lighting systems, with the ability to add equipment for touring shows. The project was designed by Safdie Rabines Architects.
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San Diego International Airport receives
$18 million federal grants for noise mitigation
San Diego International Airport will receive $18 million in grants from the Federal Aviation Administration for noise mitigation measures. The grants are the largest annual amount given to airport by the FAA for its Quieter Home Program (QHP).
The funds are administered by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority through the Quieter Home Program, the airport’s residential sound insulation program. The FAA has determined that residences within the 65 to 69 decibel level contour map around the airport may be eligible for sound insulation treatments to mitigate aircraft noise.
The FAA has set a goal of reducing interior noise levels for eligible residents by at least five decibels inside the home, providing a noticeable reduction in noise. The Airport Authority’s Quieter Home Program is the means to obtain that goal.
Primarily, the $18 million will go towards sound insulating approximately 200 to 400 homes per year, depending on the size of the home, in the areas most impacted by aircraft noise. For the first time since implementing the Quieter Home Program, the Airport Authority will also start a non-residential program to sound insulate noise-sensitive properties such as schools and churches.
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County works with SDSU to address
rising COVID-19 cases on campus
The county is working with San Diego State University to respond to a spike in COVID-19 cases in students who are enrolled in classes at the university. Since the beginning of the fall semester on Aug. 24, the university has reported 64 confirmed and probable cases in students who live on and off campus.
Eric McDonald, M.D., medical director of the County Epidemiology and Immunization Services branch, said the 64 cases among the student population do not constitute a single large outbreak. Ten of the 64 reported cases live in the same location, an off-campus housing facility. Other cases may be linked epidemiologically, but these groups of cases are not directly related to each other, and some cases are known to be related to exposures outside the county.
Students who have tested positive for the virus are isolating away from their peers, either in on-campus housing units set aside for this purpose or in county public health rooms.
The county is currently assisting with testing on campus and will partner with the university to expand testing capacity in the coming days. The university houses one of the county’s busiest drive-up test sites. Capacity at that site has been expanded to 350 tests a day.
The testing site is located at 6200 Alvarado Road and beginning Sept. 8, the site will become a walk-up site with no appointments required to get tested for COVID-19.
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Study: E-cigarettes don’t help smokers quit
E-cigarettes are now the most popular product used for smoking cessation in the United States, ahead of all U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cessation aids combined, from nicotine patches and gum to prescription medications.
Yet two recently published analyses of a large nationally representative longitudinal study report that e-cigarettes are not effective in helping adults to quit smoking. However, more research is needed to identify whether these findings also extend to newer e-cigarette designs, which may deliver nicotine as effectively as cigarettes.
The analyses were led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers.
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Frenzied buyer demand and low inventory
ignite double-digit growth in home prices
During a time when the typical homebuying season is showing signs of slowing down, home buyers were out in full force in August, scooping up homes at a rapid pace and sending the nation’s median listing price up 10 percent to a new record of $350,000 as the nation’s inventory of for sale homes reached new lows, according to realtor.com’s August Monthly Housing Trends report.
Nationally, buyers continue to outnumber sellers as the inventory of available homes declined 36 percent in August year-over-year — a faster pace than July when inventory was down 33 percent. New listings were down 12 percent year-over-year, a slight improvement over July’s decline of 13 percent, but not nearly enough to make a dent in the overall inventory shortage. At the end of August, there were nearly 500,000 fewer homes available for sale compared to a year ago.
The lack of available inventory and strong buyer demand combined to accelerate listing price growth to its highest level in three years, while the pace at which homes sold continued to pick up steam. On average, a home in the U.S. is selling in 56 days, five days faster than last year.
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SDSU’s Huaxyacac Hall achieves
crowning achievement in sustainability
San Diego State University’s newest residential community, Huaxyacac, has earned LEED Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council for new building construction.
Huaxyacac was completed and opened in August 2019 and is the university’s first residential community to attain LEED Gold status.
It is the university’s sixth residential facility to be LEED-certified along with South Campus Plaza North, South Campus Plaza South, Tenochca, Tula and Zura, which are all certified LEED Silver.
LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a third-party green building rating system. To qualify for certification, each project must follow strict LEED guidelines.
Features in Huaxyacac include advanced energy and water metering to optimize energy efficiency and support water management, low-flow toilets, showers and faucets to promote water conservation and trickle vents in resident rooms to improve indoor air quality and reduce energy consumption. Additional sustainable elements include an expansive outdoor space with water-efficient landscaping, covered bicycle storage and water bottle refill stations.
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Hazel Ocampo joins Allen Matkins
as senior counsel in San Diego office
Allen Matkins, a real estate and business law firm, announced the addition of Senior Counsel Hazel Ocampo to its San Diego office as a member of the firm’s Land Use, Environmental & Natural Resources Group.
Ocampo represents clients who are subject to enforcement actions by government agencies such as the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Department of Environmental Health, the Air Pollution Control District, and others. She also represents international manufacturers, distributors, and retailers on compliance and litigation matters involving California’s Proposition 65.
Prior to her private law practice, Hazel worked for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). She was also a recipient of the prestigious Executive Fellowship in the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA). While with Cal/EPA, Ocampo handled matters relating to water and soil contamination and automotive issues for the Schwarzenegger Administration.
Most recently, Ocampo practiced as an environmental, land use, and energy attorney in Procopio’s Downtown San Diego office. She received her Juris Doctorate from Cornell Law School and her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Manuela ‘Nelly’ Molina appointed VP
of investor relations for Sempra Energy
Sempra Energy announced that Manuela “Nelly” Molina, currently chief financial officer for Sempra Energy’s Mexico subsidiary, Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.B. de C.V. (IEnova), has been named vice president of investor relations for Sempra Energy.
Molina has served as chief financial officer for IEnova since 2017, managing the company’s corporate finances, business planning, financial reporting, mergers and acquisitions, investor relations, risk management, and information technology, among other areas. Prior to that, she served as vice president of finance for IEnova.
Since 2013, Molina has led and completed a range of financing initiatives for IEnova, totaling $10.1 billion, including the company’s initial public offering. Before joining IEnova in 2010, she spent 13 years working in the energy industry at Kinder Morgan and El Paso Corporation in Mexico.
Earlier this year, Molina was recognized by Institutional Investor Magazine as the best overall chief financial officer among Latin America energy companies in the publication’s list of “Latin America’s Most Resilient Executives and Companies.”
Faisel Khan, senior vice president of finance for Sempra Energy and chief financial officer for Sempra LNG, currently leads Sempra Energy’s investor relations team. Beginning Oct. 3, 2020, he will serve as chief financial officer for Sempra LNG, leaving leadership of Sempra Energy’s investor relations team to Molina.
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Pardee Homes promotes employees
April Gingras and Kevin Pfefferkorn
Homebuilder Pardee Homes has announced the promotion of two employees — April Gingras assuming the position of director of community experience, and Kevin Pfefferkorn taking on the role of construction area manager.
With more than 20 years of experience in sales and marketing, April Gingras joined Pardee Homes San Diego in 2018 as a sales manager, where she led the sales team’s strategies and incentive programs. In her new role, she will now oversee the development and implementation of Pardee Homes’ sales and marketing programs in San Diego.
During Gingras’ time as sales manager at Pardee Homes, she helped hire, train, and oversee all sales personnel, evaluate and adjust performance, and create successful incentive programs and pricing strategies that drive sales.
Gingras has been a member of the Building Industry Association of San Diego for more than eight years, where she currently serves as a board member and previously served as president of the Sales and Marketing Council. She also holds a California Department of Real Estate License and is a member of the North San Diego Association of Realtors.
Kevin Pfefferkorn brings more than 22-years of experience working in both commercial and residential construction to his new position. He first began working for Pardee Homes part-time as a third-party subcontractor before joining the company full-time as a customer service representative in April 2005.
In Pfefferkorn’s new role, he will oversee construction projects across all Pardee Homes’ San Diego communities, providing project management and additional oversight throughout the construction process.
During his tenure at Pardee Homes, Pfefferkorn has contributed to almost every department including Customer Service and Construction. His familiarity with these departments, coupled with his leadership and project management skillset, make him a natural leader to head the homebuilder’s day-to-day construction efforts.
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Geneticist Dr. Edward Strong joins
iAssay Inc. to lead product development
Dr. Edward Strong, the geneticist who co-founded and served as CEO of MedGenomics, Inc., has been named scientific director of iAssay Inc. Strong will guide the researchers and engineers who are developing iAssay’s product line.
iAssay is creating a suite of tools that support remote testing for COVID-19 and other medical conditions directly from patients’ homes, physicians’ offices, workplaces, and other locations.
The data gathered by an iAssay device is uploaded to the Cloud, and instantly becomes available for evaluation by physicians and clinicians. The data will also become part of the anonymized Big Data stream for use in a multitude of applications, including epidemiological studies.
Strong holds a Ph.D from Cornell University. He is a former NIH Fellow who contributed to work that won awards from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Strong has translated scientific breakthroughs into meaningful products throughout his career.
Sometimes compared to the “tricorder” in the “Star Trek” TV series and movies, iAssay’s hand-held device serves multiple purposes.
Lightweight and portable, it can be used by healthcare providers to analyze a patient sample of blood, urine, or saliva, then relay key diagnostic information to the Cloud. Within seconds, clinicians can view data on secure Internet portals.
