Daily Business Report-May 13, 2021
Legal drama continues on 101 Ash St. debacle:
City subpoenas documents
The legal drama surrounding the city’s controversial acquisition of 101 Ash St. is picking up more than a year after the city rushed to move workers out after a series of asbestos violations.
Lisa Halverstadt broke the news that attorneys representing this city late last month
issued subpoenas demanding records from major players in the controversial lease-to-own transaction, including the building’s former owners, the middle-man buyer who cut a deal with the city and a volunteer city real estate adviser who was an architect of the deal structure.
The requests underscore the continued questions surrounding what’s considered one of the worst real estate debacles in city history, namely the lack of clarity about who made money off the transaction – and how much.
The nine subpoenas obtained by Voice of San Diego represent the latest move in a lawsuit the city filed in October asking the San Diego Superior Court to bless its decision
to stop making rent payments for a building it only briefly occupied.
The subpoenas were directed to business entities of former building owners Sandy Shapery and Doug Manchester, middle-man buyer Cisterra, a company that conducted a 2016 appraisal of the building and former city real estate adviser Jason Hughes.
The subpoenas seek to clarify how the deal-making process played out and reveal the city’s focus on a similar city lease-to-own deal that served as a template for the 101 Ash St. transaction and moves by Hughes, who had said he was advising the city for free.
Halverstadt has previously dug into Hughes’ workon 101 Ash St. and previous Civic Center Plaza deals, and teamed with Jesse Marx to tell the story behind the Civic Center Plaza transaction.
PHOTO: Entrance to 101 Ash Street. (Image from Manchester Financial video)
Port of San Diego approves two more leases
for Seaport Village for 90 percent occupancy
The Board of Port Commissioners has approved two new leases for Seaport Village — Zytoun Gourmet Mediterranean and Old Harbor Distilling Company. They are the latest locally owned-and-operated businesses to soon join the waterfront shopping, dining and entertainment center.
Zytoun, the owner of Aladdin Mediterranean Restaurant in San Diego, will operate a full-service Greek and Mediterranean restaurant along the boardwalk in the Carousel District of Seaport Village on the west side of the shopping center. Zytoun will feature an outdoor, wrap-around patio with views of San Diego Bay, and healthy and fresh premium-quality Mediterranean cuisine including scrumptious salads, vegetarian meals, melt-in-your-mouth shish kabobs, and delicious appetizers like hummus, tabouli, and falafels.
Old Harbor Distilling Company will open its second San Diego location in Seaport Village’s Lighthouse District on the east side of the shopping center. Old Harbor will include a craft tasting room combined with a fast-casual seafood restaurant concept offering chowders, lobster rolls, and fish plates. Old Harbor has operated its first location in San Diego’s East Village since 2013.
Renovations for both Zytoun and Old Harbor are anticipated to begin in the fall, with opening targeted for spring/summer 2022.
California may soon relax workplace rules
that require employees to wear face masks
Emily Hoeven | CalMatters
If you’re looking for a sign that California is approaching the end of the pandemic, here it is: The state may soon ease workplace rules that require employees to wear face masks and physically distance from each other.
Next week, California’s workplace safety agency is set to consider proposed changes to its emergency coronavirus standards adopted in November, the Sacramento Bee reports. The suggested revisions would on Aug. 1 lift a mandate requiring most workers to maintain six feet of distance at all times. They would also permit fully vaccinated workers without COVID symptoms to forgo masks outdoors as well as indoors, as long as everyone else in the room is also fully vaccinated and doesn’t have symptoms.
But it also appears the changes could come even sooner — and be more widespread. Gov. Gavin Newsom told Fox LA’s Elex Michaelson on Tuesday that he envisions eliminating California’s mask mandate by June 15, the state’s target date for a full reopening.
Sept. 18 gala will honor retiring chancellor
of San Diego Community College District
The San Diego Community College District will hold a gala on Sept. 18, 2021 honoring the legacy of retiring Chancellor Constance M. Carroll that will also serve as a major fundraiser for the tuition-free San Diego Promise.
Chancellor Carroll will be retiring July 1, 2021 after serving for 17 years as the chief executive officer at one of the largest community college districts in California. The gala, titled “A Legacy of Achievement: A Tribute to Chancellor Constance M. Carroll, Ph.D. Benefiting the San Diego Promise,” is scheduled to be held at the San Diego Mission Bay Resort.
The SDCCD’s longest-serving Chancellor, Carroll has made an extraordinary impact on the district and its students since her appointment in 2004. Prior to that she served as president of San Diego Mesa College for 11 years.
Mindera Corp. raises over $12 million in Series A-2 financing
San Diego-based Mindera Corporation announced a $12.6 million Series A-2 capital raise. The round was led by Mountain Group Partners, Rockmont Investments, and Scientific Health Development. The funding will be used to commercialize Mind.Px, a groundbreaking tool to prospectively predict patient response to expensive psoriasis biologics, as well as continue development of the Mindera Dermal Intelligence Platform.
The Mindera platform uses a simple patch that extracts biomarkers from the skin in minutes, allowing for rapid and painless extraction of RNA. Subsequent Next-Generation Sequencing of the extracted RNA allows Mindera scientists to take a genetic and transcriptomic snapshot of the skin at the exact moment of the test.
Cannabis industry poised to top $35 billion
in annual sales in the U.S. by 2024
According to data from Leafly, the U.S. cannabis industry currently supports 321,000 full-time cannabis jobs, a remarkable 32 percent increase from a record number of jobs in 2020. With adult-use cannabis now legalized in 17 states and counting, the industry is poised to support 500,000 full-time jobs and top $35 billion in annual sales in the U.S. by 2024.
“The cannabis industry proved its strength and resiliency in 2020 and enters 2021 as the fastest-growing industry in the United States,” said Liesl Bernard, CEO of CannabizTeam. “With so much hiring, growth and investment activity, we’re seeing a red hot cannabis job market at the start of Q2 2021. The future is bright, and we look forward to our continued role in connecting exceptional talent with the cannabis industry’s leading companies.”
Jonathan Segals FAIA’s first high rise
Located in the heart of Little Italy, San Diego, this building will serve as a prototype for high density urban infill housing to solve California’s housing crisis. The building eclipses 600 dwelling units an acre on a mere 5,000 sq ft site with 73 units 8 of which are affordable in its current configuration. In addition, in order to mitigate the enormous amount of site area required for onsite parking, the building will feature a fully automated robotic parking system completely eliminating parking circulation.