Daily Business Report-April 1, 2021
El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association
to host virtual Town Hall on April 8
The El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Associationwill host a Virtual Town Hall on Thursday, April 8, at 5:30 p.m. to engage with the community’s business owners and residents about applying the Blvd. 20/20 Plan and Complete Community Plans in the District’s Central Hub, which runs along El Cajon Boulevard between the 805 and 15 freeways.
This will be the third in a series of Town Hall events the Boulevard BIA is holding to seek input from community members. This event will focus on three main topics: (1) transportation (including making the pilot program for the dedicated bus lane permanent), development (including accessory dwelling units, or ADUs), and (3) business recruitment.
The Blvd. 20/20 Plan envisions El Cajon Boulevard as a model for successful transit-oriented communities in San Diego. In recent years, the Boulevard BIA has been engaging with the community on topics such as neighborhood amenities, affordability, accessibility, cultural enhancement and urban living.
Photo: Beryl Forman and the iconic Boulevard sign
Cubic accepts $3 billion buyout proposal
Cubic Corporation announced Wednesday that it has accepted a proposal from Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation, an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management L.P., to increase the price per share of their pending acquisition of Cubic to $75 per share in cash. The company has accepted this proposal and entered into an amendment to its previously announced definitive merger agreement with affiliates of Veritas to acquire the company.
Under the terms of the Amended Agreement, Cubic shareholders will receive $75 in cash for each share of Cubic’s common stock, representing a premium of approximately 69 percent to Cubic’s unaffected closing stock price on Sept. 18, 2020, the last trading day before the company’s disclosure of third-party interest in potentially acquiring Cubic. The all-cash transaction will be valued at approximately $3 billion, including the assumption of debt.
Illumina committed to pursuing GRAIL acquisition
llumina Inc. announced that it disagrees with, and will oppose, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s challenge to its previously announced acquisition of GRAIL, a pre-commercial company founded to accelerate early screening of cancer. Illumina said it will pursue its right to proceed with the transaction, the impact of which would accelerate the adoption of a breakthrough multi-cancer early detection blood test.
Illumina originally founded GRAIL five years ago and the two companies do not compete in any way, according to an Illumina statement. In reuniting the two organizations, Illumina said, it will leverage its global scale of manufacturing and clinical capabilities, as well as its global regulatory and reimbursement expertise, to bring early-stage, multi-cancer testing to patients more quickly and more affordably, resulting in more lives being saved.
Citadel Defense secures new $5 million counter drone contract
National City-based Citadel Defense has received a follow-on urgent contract award from the U.S. Department of Defense to protect servicemen and servicewomen from small drone threats.
“Our team is honored to support the military’s efforts by bringing effective and easy-to-use CUAS capabilities to U.S. troops and allies. Titan delivers an operational advantage over adversaries using drones as a weapon,” said Christopher Williams, CEO of Citadel Defense.
According to Citadel Defense, senior Pentagon leaders have called small drones the greatest battlefield threat since IEDs. The use of small drones has exploded and is rapidly changing the security environment. Adversaries have access to affordable and highly capable drone platforms that are easily adapted and weaponized to conduct surveillance and targeting against U.S. forces.
Waiting for Justice
It’s a shocking statistic: 75 percebt of the inmates in California’s county jails — more than 44,000 people — have not been convicted or sentenced for a crime.
Instead, they’re largely waiting for arraignment, trial or sentencing. At least 1,300 people have been waiting for more than three years, 332 for more than five years, and one for almost 12 years, CalMatters’ Robert Lewis reportsin a new investigation, “Waiting for Justice.” The numbers showcase how California’s backlogged judicial system — which has incurred even more delays amid the pandemic — denies defendants one of the country’s most sacred legal principles: innocent until proven guilty. But it isn’t just the inmates who are stuck in limbo — each day the cases drag on is another day victims’ families don’t get closure.
Airport Authority names Hampton Brown as vice president, revenue generation, marketing and innovation
San Diego County Regional Airport Authority President and CEO, Kimberly Becker has promoted Hampton Brown to vice president, revenue generation, marketing and innovation. In this role, he is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the revenue generation, innovation, marketing, and air service development functions at San Diego International Airport.
Brown joined the Airport Authority in 2004 as air service specialist and has held progressive management positions within the organization, most recently interim vice president, revenue generation, marketing, and innovation. Before joining the Airport Authority, Brown was a senior consultant with Edwards & Kelcey where he worked with airports across the U.S. He has also held positions in the areas of market research, international business operations, and logistics planning.
Brown holds a B.A. in political science from Allegheny College and a master’s degree in international management from the University of Maryland. He’s accredited through the Global ACI-ICAO Airport Management Professional Accreditation Programme, which is an executive development program for airport executives worldwide.
Virtual grand opening celebrates 300-plus affordable rentals in Mission Valley
The completion of more than 300 new affordable rental apartments in Mission Valley for seniors and families with low income was celebrated this week at a virtual grand opening event. Developed by Chelsea Investment Corporation in collaboration with SDHC and additional partners, the Siena and Stylus developments are part of the Civita master-planned community in Mission Valley.
Siena consists of 103 one- and two-bedroom apartments with rents affordable to seniors with income up to 65 percent of the San Diego Area Median Income (AMI), currently $60,100 per year for a two-person household. Stylus, formerly known as Civita II Family Apartments, provides 201 two- and three-bedroom apartments for families with income up to 60 percent of AMI, currently $69,300 per year for a family of four, and two managers’ units without rent restrictions.
NASA picks 16 teams to develop deep space exploration proposals
ExecutiveGov
NASA has chosen 16 academic teams to further their deep-space exploration proposals as part of the agency’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts– Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) program.
NASA said Tuesday that the teams will develop their concepts that fall under five themes involving lunar surface habitation, Mars ascent vehicles, Venus flyby missions, lunar sample analysis, International Space Station activities and human missions to the dwarf planet Ceres.
Representatives from Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blue Origin and Boeing were among the industry experts that helped select the participating teams.
The teams will receive a “modest development stipend” to support concept development activities while the top two groups will secure $6,000 to present their proposals at the 2021 ASCEND conference in Nov. 2021 according to NASA.
Parallel Capital Partners announces $80 million in lease renewals
San Diego-based Parallel Capital Partners Inc. has announced $80 million in lease renewals – spanning over 140,000 square feet – with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) at Shoreline Square, a Class A office tower at 301 East Ocean Blvd., in Long Beach.
Owned and operated by Parallel Capital Partners, a commercial real estate investment and operating company, the 20-story Shoreline Square encompasses 410,114 square feet of premier office space.
According to Matt Root, CEO of Parallel Capital Partners, Shoreline Square is currently 87 percent percent leased,
UC San Diego’s graduate programs and schools ranked among best in U.S.
U.S. News & World Report has again named graduate schools and programs at the University of California San Diego among the best in the nation. The 2022 Best Graduate Schools rankings gave high marks to the campus’s graduate education in political science and the Jacobs School of Engineering, among other professional schools and programs on campus.
For the 2022 report, UC San Diego’s graduate education in political science earned the eighth spot in the nation and placed third among public universities. Economics ranked 12th in the nation and tied for second place among the nation’s public universities.
The rankings also named UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering ninth overall in the nation for the second year in a row and fifth among public engineering schools. The school’s Department of Bioengineering ranked third in the U.S., up one spot from last year and in first place out of all University of California schools.
