Daily Business Report-April 20, 2021
Anchor Health Properties acquires Mission Valley
office building for medical office conversion
Anchor Health Properties, a national health care real estate development, management, and investment company, has acquired an 81,236-square-foot Class A commercial office building in Mission Valley. The purchase price was not announced.
Located at 9095 Rio San Diego Drive, the building was acquired through a joint venture with co-managed equity fund Chestnut Healthcare Fund II, and Harrison Street, an investment management firm.
Anchor intends to re-develop and convert the building to a fully clinical medical use over the coming years in order to provide an outpatient medical facility for the residents of Mission Valley.
As part of the transaction, Anchor has agreed to terms with a regional medical specialist practice to lease and operate a five-operating room surgery center on the ground floor of the building, taking nearly 20,000 square feet of space and serving as an anchor tenant.
PHOTO: The office building at 9095 Rio San Diego Drive.
Airbnb hosts in college towns hike up
prices game days to deter rival fans
New UC San Diego research finds that the animosity costs hosts a 78 percent loss in rental income
Airbnb hosts in college towns increase their listing prices much more than hotels when there are home football games against rival teams. Hosts experience a 78 percent reduction in rental income by listing prices too high, according to a new study by the University of California San Diego’s Rady School of Management.
The paper, to be published in Real Estate Economics, investigates whether households set listing prices to maximize rental income.
“Airbnb hosts in college towns are individuals, not corporations and are more susceptible to biases that lead to sub-optimal pricing,” said co-author Joseph Engelberg, professor of finance and accounting at the Rady School. “In this case, we found that strong emotions involved in college football rivalries confounded listing prices set by households.”
Port’s proposed wetland mitigation bank in South Bay
advances to California Coastal Commission
The Port of San Diego’s proposed wetland mitigation bank project in the South Bay marks a major milestone with two approvals needed to advance the project to the California Coastal Commission for consideration. The project, the first of its kind for San Diego Bay, would create a 76.5-acre coastal wetland mitigation bank on the southern portion of a port-owned parcel known as Pond 20, a former salt evaporation pond that is currently vacant, isolated from tidal influence, and provides little habitat value due to its salt-encrusted surface and invasive plants.
The Board of Port Commissioners on April 13ncertified the Environmental Impact Report for the proposed wetland mitigation bank as well as approved a Port Master Plan Amendment (PMPA) that would add the parcel and use of it as a wetland mitigation bank into the Port’s coastal permitting jurisdiction. The PMPA goes next to the California Coastal Commission. If certified, and state and federal permits are obtained, construction could begin as soon as spring 2022, with completion in late 2023.
PHOTO: Conceptual rendering depicts future proposed wetland mitigation bank at Pond 20.
Ingenuity helicopter controlled by Qualcomm chip
makes historic 39-second flight on Mars
The four-pound Ingenuity helicopter controlled by a Qualcommsmartphone chip made the first flight on another planet Monday, climbing to 10 feet above Mars and hovering for 30 seconds before landing.
The solar-powered helicopter took off at 12:34 a.m. Pacific time and logged a total of 39.1 seconds of flight in the thin, cold Martian atmosphere. The successful flight was confirmed when data and images were received approximately three hours later.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said the flight demonstrates that powered, controlled flight on another planet is possible.
San Diego-based Qualcomm provided a Snapdragon processor similar to the chips used in smartphones for autonomous control of the helicopter, since radio signals take over 10 minutes to reach Earth form Mars right now.
Northrop Grumman receives $99 million Navy
early warning aircraft contract modification
GOVCON Wire
Northrop Grumman has secured a six-year, $99 million contract modification with the U.S. Navy to obtain materials and support services needed to manufacture E-2D Advanced Hawkeye early warning aircraft.
The funds will support the production of three E-2Ds for the French government as part of a foreign military sales deal, the Department of Defense said Friday.
Naval Air Systems Command is the contracting activity and will use FMS funds to cover the full obligated amount.
E-2D is designed to function as a battle management command and control platform and provide a 360-degree radar coverage area for military users, according to Northrop.
NAVAIR noted on its website that the aircraft can be used to concurrently manage various missions that may occur in a single flight.
Ground broken for Citro, new Fallbrook community
A developer hosted a groundbreaking in Fallbrook for a 390-acre residential community, with the goal of having model homes ready by the fall.
Tri Pointe Homes, the Irvine-based company formerly known as Pardee Homes, held the ribbon-cutting to kick off construction of the Citro community’s first residences.
The community will be located in southeastern Fallbrook, north of State Route 76 and east of Interstate 15.
The planned homes, ranging in size from 1,083 to 2,534 square feet, will include up to five bedrooms, and be priced beginning in the $400,000s, on up to nearly $700,000.
Opposition arose, chiefly from Native American tribes alarmed over remains found on site, but the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the project, then known as Meadowood, in January 2012.
Chimeric tool advanced for wide range of regenerative medicine
The ability to grow the cells of one species within an organism of a different species offers scientists a powerful tool for research and medicine. It’s an approach that could advance our understanding of early human development, disease onset and progression and aging; provide innovative platforms for drug evaluation; and address the critical need for transplantable organs. Yet developing such capabilities has been a formidable challenge.
Researchers led by Salk Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte have now come one step closer toward this goal by demonstrating a new integration of human cells into animal tissue. Published in the journal Cell on April 15, 2021, the new study builds upon previous work by the Izpisua Belmonte lab to take the next step in chimeric organisms—organisms that contain cells from two or more species—to understand a host of diseases and address the severe shortage in donor organs.
California median home price reaches new all-time high in March
Fierce competition drove California’s median home price to reach a new record high in March, while the state’s housing market continued its momentum with sales remaining solid heading into the spring homebuying season, the California Association of Realtors reported.
The statewide median home price climbed 8.6 percent on a month-to-month basis to $758,990 in March, up from February’s $699,000 and up 23.9 percent from the $612,440 recorded last March. The year-over-year gain was the highest since October 2013 and it was the eighth straight month that California’s median price registered a double-digit gain.
March home sales decreased 3.5 percent from 462,720 in February and were up 19.7 percent from a year ago, when 373,070 homes were sold on an annualized basis. While still solid, the monthly sales decline was the third in a row, and the sales pace was the lowest since last July. The near-20 percent sales gain can be attributed partly to weak home sales a year ago as the Coronavirus outbreak abruptly halted the real estate market and economy.
Southern California Bancorp sells 3 branches to Friendly Hills Bank
Southern California Bancorp, the holding company for Bank of Southern California, N.A., announced the sale of three of its branches in Orange, Redlands and Santa Fe Springs to Friendly Hills Bank.
“These three branches are more aligned to serve a consumer or small business banking model, rather than a commercial banking model,” said Nathan Rogge, president and CEO of Bank of Southern California. “We thoughtfully executed the sale of these branches and are pleased to have found the right partner for our customers and employees in Friendly Hills Bank, a local community bank.”
