Daily Business Report-Oct. 19, 2020
Rendering of Oceanside hotel properties. (Photo courtesy of S.D. Malkin)
New Oceanside hotels count on
‘Top Gun’ factor to boost business
Developer S.D. Malkin plans a spring 2021 opening for what is being billed as the San Diego region’s largest oceanfront hotel project in more than a century, a project aimed at attracting tourist interest for a vintage house used in the filming of the 1980s movie “Top Gun.” The two-hotel complex in downtown Oceanside is designed to total 387 rooms in the new Mission Pacific Hotel and Seabird Resort. The project sits on the site of the Victorian-style Oceanside beachfront house, originally built in 1887, where stars Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis filmed several interior and exterior scenes in the hit fighter pilot film.
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Labor Market Trends
San Diego Workforce Partnership
San Diego’s jobs recovery continued in September, but many companies and individuals continue to struggle with the ravages of the pandemic. The region added jobs but at half the pace seen in August. Unemployment fell, but the jobless rate is still triple its pre-pandemic level.
San Diego’s jobless rate in September moved to a seasonally adjusted 9.1 percent, down slightly from the prior month’s 9.2 percent. More people entered the labor market to look for work and even more found jobs. People have dropped out of the workforce, however, to care for aging parents or to help with children with school. Others may fear catching COVID-19 at work. A total of 30,000 San Diegans have dropped out of the workforce just since February.
“While there are lots of production jobs available, San Diegans are still hesitant to go back to work,” said Mel Katz, executive officer of Manpower West. “We are seeing hourly wages increasing by two or more dollars per hour to entice workers to leave home and enter the workforce.”
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San Diego Oasis to host free 4-day
virtual technology fair for older adults
San Diego Oasis will host its eighth annual “Get Connected: Technology Fair for Adults 50+” tomorrow through Friday as a virtual event. The nonprofit anticipates more than 10,000 older adults to attend, including locals and older adults from around the United States. This event is free, but registration is required. Go to www.SanDiegoOasis.org.
Although online, “Get Connected” will feature free sessions presented by knowledgeable speakers addressing a wide variety of technology-related topics, including social networking, online safety, innovative apps, smartphones and tablets, and much more.
Attendees will have the opportunity to consult with experts to answer just about any kind of tech question like ‘how do I connect all of my devices to my smart watch’? or ‘how do I spot an online scam’? Opportunity drawings for the chance to win tech-related gifts will be held throughout the four-day event.
This annual immersive technology event is designed to help ease frustration when it comes to smartphones, computers, tablets, apps, telemedicine, and much more. Day one of the Tech Fair will kick off with Irwin Jacobs, co-founder of Qualcomm, who will provide opening remarks.
For more information, call (619) 881-6262.
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Cubic wins contract to supply F-35 P5 ground
subsystem for UK Ministry of Defence Training
Cubic Corporationannounced its Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions business division was awarded a contract to deliver a P5 Combat Training System (P5CTS) ground subsystem with live monitoring to support Royal Air Force training and a Royal Navy Carrier Strike Group exercise, taking place in the United Kingdom this fall.
“Used in more than 30 ranges worldwide, our advanced and interoperable P5CTS sets the standard for joint, multiservice and coalition training,” said Jonas Furukrona, vice president and general manager of LVC Training, Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions. “We look forward to providing additional training capability via our P5 ground subsystem for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force F-35 training.”
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Sony Electronics launches
Spatial Reality Display
Sony Electronics Inc. announced the debut of the Spatial Reality Display, a new product made with Sony’s Eye-Sensing Light Field Display technology. The display does not require virtual reality glasses or a headset. The SR Display enables creators across a variety of industries, from automotive and industrial design, to Computer Graphics and Visual Effects designers and creators in film to bring ideas to life in stunning 3D displays.
The SR Display is based a high-speed vision sensor which follows exact eye position in space, on vertical, horizontal and depth axes simultaneously. The display monitors eye movement down to the millisecond, while rendering the image instantaneously, based on the location and position of the viewer’s eyes. This allows creators to interact with their designs in a highly-realistic virtual, 3D environment, from any angle without glasses.
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Cue Health wins $481 million to
expand COVID-19 test manufacturing
SanDiego biotech Cue Health has secured $481 million from the Department of Defense to produce six million fast, portable COVID-19 tests by March 2021. The FDA issued an emergency use authorization for Cue’s test in June, which have since been used as part of the NBA’s screening strategy.
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Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII
to sell BioMed Realty for $14.6B
Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII and co-investors have agreed to sell BioMed Realty for $14.6 billion to a group led by existing BioMed investors. BioMed Realty’s San Diego headquarters are at 4570 Executive Drive 92121
BioMed is the largest private owner of life science office buildings in the US with a 11.3 million square foot portfolio concentrated in Boston/Cambridge, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle and Cambridge UK. In connection with the recapitalization, existing BioMed investors were offered the option to exit for cash or reinvest their proceeds from the sale. The investment will generate $6.5 billion of cumulative profits for BREP VIII and BioMed co-investors.
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Scott Danshaw and Justin Harvey
join Colliers International San Diego
Scott Danshaw and Justin Harvey have joined Colliers International San Diego as vice presidents. Danshaw and Harvey work as a team representing owners and users for sales and leasing of office and industrial properties in Central San Diego County.
Danshaw and Harvey have historically completed more than 50 deals per year. In career totals, the duo has sold more than 60 commercial properties and completed more than 700 lease transactions. Danshaw is a graduate of Arizona State University and Harvey is a graduate of University of California, Davis.
The team’s notable clients include Bob Baker Enterprises, Solar Alliance of America, Access Youth Academy, PRN, Psycare, Greystar, PBK Architects, HMC Architects, Dahlin Group, Numotion, La Jolla Oral & Facial Surgery, Mary Jude Limited Partnership, West Coast OB-GYN, Indo Teak Design, Tutto Marmo, Del Mar Plastic Surgery, Community Catalysts of CA and Construction Notice Services, among others.
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Grossmont College Career Expo’s virtual
platform next best thing to being there
Like so many public events during the current pandemic, Grossmont College’s annual Career Expo won’t be in person this year, but organizers are taking steps to encourage human interactions in a virtual environment. Grossmont College, the San Diego Workforce Partnership, and the San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce will host the free public event 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Students, alumni, job- and career- seekers can register at https://tinyurl.com/y6aolpnr. Employers can register at http://bit.ly/2EzutmM.
A virtual conference platform called “Remo” will allow jobseekers at the 42nd Annual Career Expo to visit multiple “tables” and be interviewed one-on-one in real time by potential employers. Attendees will visit as avatars and will see a digital room with tables where they will be seated in groups of six to listen to presentations and take part in chat and networking sessions among themselves and vendors.
Attendees will have a bird’s-eye view of the room and will be able to identify those present and find empty seats to occupy. Waiting rooms will be set up so attendees can wait their turn to visit stations that are full.
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SDSU receives $16.5 million grant
to further leadership in vocational education
San Diego State University has been awarded a $16.5 million federal grant to keep the university at the forefront of improving employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The U.S. Department of Education Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) will provide the funding over five years to support a new center, housed in SDSU’s Interwork Institute, that will provide quality management to the 78 public vocational rehabilitation agencies nationwide that connect people with disabilities to career resources.
The new center will build off the success of the Workforce Innovation Technical Assistance Center (WINTAC), an RSA-funded national initiative run by the Interwork Institute for the past five years.
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Keeling Curve receives continuation
funding from Eric and Wendy Schmidt
The Keeling Curve carbon dioxide measurement —t he long-term atmospheric measurement that alerted the world to human-induced climate change — will receive $1 million in continuation funding from philanthropists Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Scripps Institution of Oceanography announced. In addition, the couple’s Schmidt Ocean Institute awarded a separate $450,000 grant to UC San Diego to support complementary ocean acidification measurements in the Atlantic and Pacific.
The grant, supported by Schmidt Futures, will fund the continuation of global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration measurements maintained by the Scripps CO2 Group, including the critical Keeling Curve measurements that have been recorded daily at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory since 1958.
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Four San Diego companies make
Fores Just 100 list
San Diego powerhouses Illumina, Sempra Energy and ServiceNow made the Forbes Just 100 list of companies shifting towar responsible capitalism. These four beat out more than 900 publicly traded companies evaluated on their treatment of workers, community, customers, shareholders and the environment.
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Register to vote deadline is today
If you want to vote in the Nov. 3 Presidential General Election, register by today to get a ballot in the mail. Otherwise, you will need to make a trip in person to the Registrar’s office or your assigned polling place to register conditionally and vote provisionally. You will need to register or re-register to vote if you are: not registered in San Diego County; recently moved; or changed your name
