Daily Business Report-March 30, 2021
The New Children’s Museum becomes the first of San Diego’s museums to unionize
The New Children’s Museum workers and management ratified a collective bargaining agreement last week, making the museum the first of San Diego’s 45 museums to unionize.
The agreement governs wages, benefits and worker protections, and comes after more than a year of negotiations amid the challenges of the pandemic. It covers the workers who serve museum guests, execute programming and play, implement health and safety measures and make connections with the children and families who come through the museum’s doors each day.
Both museum management and staff praised the agreement’s enhanced benefits and increased wages as well as its inclusion of protections for laid off and furloughed workers.
“This contract demonstrates the power of union workers at the bargaining table. Our members were able to negotiate immediate increases in pay, along with annual pay raises, sustained health care, and opportunities for more input on the job,” said Nate Fairman, business manager for IBEW Local 465, which represents The New Children’s Museum staff. “Workers are the heart of the museum and deserve the respect that a fair contract brings.”.
“The museum’s largest annual investment is in our people. Our employees are creative and diligent and care deeply about our mission,” said Museum Interim Executive Director/COO Reed Vickerman. “We are proud to invest in our employees and acknowledge their contributions to the Museum and San Diego’s children.”
Photo: Courtesy of The New Children’s Museum
San Diego among top targets for commercial real estate investment in 2021
A survey of commercial real estate investors ranked San Diego as a top 20 target among America’s metros. San Diego jumped three spots from No. 20 to No. 17 in CBRE’s 2021 Americas Investor Intentions Survey.
“Record venture capital investments in San Diego’s life sciences and technology sectors are driving job growth to an already thriving ecosystem in a supply constrained market,” said Natalie Dahl, San Diego region managing director of CBRE.
“Strong economic fundamentals driving rent growth are the number one factor for market preference in 2021,” said Chris Ludeman, global president of capital markets for CBRE. “The metros most favored by investors this year were buoyed by proven labor market resilience during the pandemic and a steady growth outlook. Remote working has also boosted labor migration to relatively low-cost markets with well-developed suburbs.”
Exagen announces study on long-term effects of COVID-19
Vista-based Exagen Inc. announced that it will collaborate with Emory University on a new study about the long-term effects of COVID-19 infection in the development of autoimmune diseases. Emory is widely acknowledged as a leading research institution in the study of various autoimmune diseases, including lupus.
The study will further evaluate the emergence of biomarkers that are known indicators for the development of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
“The autoimmune response after COVID-19 infection is unknown at this time, and we hope our investigation can shed light on what the future for these patients may hold,” said Dr. Ignacio Sanz, chief of the Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine at Emory University.
“With our focus set on improving the care continuum for autoimmune patients, we hope insight into post-infection can help rheumatologists better customize care for their patients,” said Ron Rocca, president and CEO of Exagen.
Lance Hastings, president of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association. CMTA has received 16 fraudulent EDD claims using their former address, each with different Social Security numbers, since September. (Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters)
Is California blowing it on unemployment reform?
CalMatters
California’s unemployment rate fell to a pandemic low of 8.5 percent in February, the Employment Development Department announced Friday — even as its jobless benefits fund sank deeper into the red, imperiling economic recovery.
The Golden State recovered nearly 91 percent of the jobs it lost in December and January, with leisure and hospitality gaining 102,200 jobs as restaurants and hotels reopened. But its unemployment rate, which is still more than double what it was in February 2020, is the third-highest in the country. And the state has borrowed a staggering 40 percent of the $53 billion the federal government has loaned to cash-strapped states and territories to pay jobless benefits. California’s unemployment insurance debt amounts to $21.2 billion — a deficit EDD officials expect to hit $48 billion by the end of the year.
Likely picking up the tab: California businesses, which pay taxes financing the state’s unemployment insurance fund. They’re already paying a 15 percent emergency surcharge due to the fund’s insolvency, and many say higher unemployment taxes will make it harder for them to recover and rehire workers, CalMatters’ Lauren Hepler reports.
Ted Jacobs joins CBRE as new leader in life sciences for San Diego
Ted Jacobs has joined CBRE as vice chairman, leading its regional Life Sciences Practice for the Occupier Division with an exclusive focus on tenant representation. Jacobs, based in San Diego, will also help lead CBRE’s National Life Science practice as a member of its Executive Council.
Jacobs will round out the firm’s San Diego Life Science Practice, which includes agency leasing, project construction management, financial consulting, facilities management and debt and structured finance. He will collaborate with CBRE professionals across the country.
Jacobs joins from Cushman & Wakefield, where he was the youngest vice chairman in the history of the company, a Top-5 producer in the Americas for 2020 and the firm’s #1 producer in the San Diego region last year. He joined C&W in 2008.
Jacobs represents a broad range of companies and occupiers in the sector including startups, big pharma, nonprofit institutes, venture capital firms, across a wide variety of uses such as cGMP, CLIA, biology and chemistry. Jacobs is a member of CONNECT, the BIOCOM Facilities Committee, and is on the board of directors of BIOCOM and the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange (SDEE).
Jacobs holds a degree in Entrepreneurship from the Kelley School of Business as well as a management degree from the School of SPEA at Indiana University.
Physician Retraining and Reentry Inc. partners with Teal Ventures
Physician Retraining and Reentry Inc., a San Diego-based program that educates and trains physicians to return to practice as primary care doctors, has entered a growth investment and partnership with Teal Ventures, a digital health care venture capital firm. The partnership with Teal will allow PRR to grow its online educational program, presented in collaboration with the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
The program to re-educate and return experienced physicians to practice as primary care doctors was developed in association with UC San Diego School of Medicine Physician Assessment and Clinical Education Program faculty who were concerned with the physician shortage crisis in the United States. UC San Diego’s PACE program is a nationally renowned program used by state medical boards and medical facilities to evaluate physicians and their abilities and to remediate deficiencies.
San Diego’s Bank of Southern California opens new branch in L.A.
Bank of Southern California N.A., a commercial bank headquartered in San Diego, announced the opening of its newest branch location in West Los Angeles, at 1640 S. Sepulveda, Suite 130.. The bank said it plans to open several new branches within Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Carlsbad’s SeaSpine beefs up portfolio with $110 million buyout of 7D Surgical
Carlsbad’s SeaSpine Holdings, a medical device company focused on spine disorders, has agreed to acquire Toronto-based 7D Surgical in a cash and stock deal valued at $110 million. The acquisition gives SeaSpine access to a machine-vision/optical imaging technology system for spine surgeries to augment its portfolio of implants, instruments, and orthobiologic products. 7D’s technology accurately tracks and identifies individual segments of the spine during surgery, reducing the time, cost, and radiation exposure associated with image-guided procedures.
“Surgeons can reach their occupational limit of radiation in as little as 10 years,” said SeaSpine Chief Executive Keith Valentine. “We believe the 7D platform, combined with our now-comprehensive spinal implant and orthobiologics portfolios, will lead the way in advancing spine surgery while making everyone safer in the surgical environment.”
Green Business Expo opens April 21 in Carlsbad
Organized by the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber’s Green Business Committee in partnership with The Flower Fields in Carlsbad, the April 21 Green Business Expo is in celebration of the 51st Anniversary of Earth Day in North County. The 2 p.m. event will showcase the area’s businesses that make the San Diego region one of the most sustainable areas in the world.
Learn about green business practices you can implement in your own businesses and at home, and how it pays to be green while enjoying the beautiful sight of 50-acres of ranunculus flowers during PEAK BLOOM! Theevent is open to the public with a $10 donation to benefit The Flower Fields Foundation which provides education programs for children in our community.
