Daily Business Report-Wednesday, June 16, 2021
New report says employee-owned businesses more
profitable and resilient than many privately owned firms
San Diego businesses, and their employees, could enjoy opportunities for tremendous growth by switching to an employee-ownership model, according a new San Diego Workforce Partnership report, “Employee Ownership: A Good-For-Business Tool that Creates Equity and Opportunity for Workers.”
The report finds that employee-owned businesses, such as Taylor Guitars, are both more profitable and resilient than many privately-owned companies. The Workforce Partnership outlines how San Diego’s economy could see improvements through businesses adopting an employee-owned model.
The Workforce Partnership will be hosting “Keep San Diego Businesses Thriving: An Employee Ownership Workshop” on June 17, in partnership with Project Equity.
The number of small businesses open in San Diego decreased by 37.9 percent in 2021due to the compounded economic and opportunity crises associated with the pandemic. And as millions of baby boomer business owners retire every year, nearly 1 in 6 American employees could face job loss.
Employee ownership is a powerful tool to retain businesses and jobs in our small business-based economy, according to the report.
Employee ownership also helps close the race and gender wage gap. Employee owners of color have a 30 percent higher income and women employee owners have a 17 percent higher income than their non-employee owner counterparts, a number that jumps to 24 percent for single women.
PHOTO: El Cajon-based Taylor Guitars announced on Jan. 11, 2021 the company is transitioning to 100 percent employee ownership through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. (Photo provided by Taylor Guitars)
BAE System secures $104.8 million
contract for USS San Diego modernization
ExecutiveGov
BAE Systems has secured a $90.2 million U.S. Navy contract for the maintenance and modernization of the amphibious transport dock USS San Diego. If all options are exercised, the contract could reach $104.8 million in value.
“The upcoming USS San Diego project is a major event in the service life of the ship, expanding its capability to execute a wide range of naval missions for many years to come,” saidDavid Thomas Jr., BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair vice president and general manager.
The docking selected restricted availability contract will require BAE Systems to dry-dock the 684-foot-long ship and perform work on the underwater hull, repair its system of ballast tanks and preserve its amphibious well deck area.
The company will also refurbish the living spaces for as many as 800 sailors and Marines that can be carried aboard. The work is planned to begin in September 2021 at the company’s San Diego shipyard and take over a year to complete.
USS San Diego was commissioned in May 2012 and is the fourth Navy vessel named after the southern California city. It is also the sixth ship of the San Antonio class.
Will travel and tourism return with California reopening?
By Miranda Green | CalMatters
With California reopening Tuesday to mostly full capacity, its travel and tourism industry
is aching for a significant bounce back. But experts are tempering expectations; domestic travel won’t fully recover until 2023 and the number of international tourists, especially from China and Mexico, remain less than half of pre-pandemic levels.
And a full reopening won’t happen until large conventions return — not a certainty with the wholesale move to work shift.
The state generated $144.9 billion in travel spending in 2019, according to a study by travel and tourism research group Dean Runyan Associates. But when the pandemic hit, travel and occupancy restrictions devastated gains that California had nurtured after the Great Recession.
While tourism dropped 36 percent nationally in 2020, California’s tourism revenue dropped 55 percent, according to Dean Runyan. And more than half of California’s roughly 1.2 million-person tourism workforce lost their jobs in the first month of the lockdown, according to a report released in May 2020. The Legislature passed a law requiring businesses to prioritize rehiring those who lost jobs, and many workers are hoping to resume work.
Mission Healthcare agrees to acquire Silverado Hospice
in Ventura, San Mateo and Salt Lake City communities
San Diego-based Mission Healthcare, one of Californias largest home health, hospice, and palliative care providers, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the hospice assets of Silverado Hospice in Ventura, San Mateo and Salt Lake City.
This is Mission Healthcare’s third acquisition in 2021, with the Salt Lake City location marking the first acquisition outside of California. “Silverado Hospice delivers exceptional patient care and I’m delighted to officially welcome them to the Mission family,” said Paul VerHoeve, CEO.
Silverado Hospice Ventura, Salt Lake City and San Mateo have a comprehensive staff of clinicians, social workers, chaplains, and volunteers that will continue to provide compassionate, quality care under Mission Healthcare, said VerHoeve. In-home, end-of-life hospice care helps patients live comfortably and with dignity and can be provided in any place a patient calls home.
PYC establishing new U.S. headquarters in San Diego
PYC Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a new generation of precision RNA therapeutics, announced residency at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS at San Diego after a successful application and selection process.
This new U.S. location will serve as the company’s U.S. headquarters which will house preclinical and clinical development, regulatory, manufacturing, business development and general corporate operations. The company’s drug discovery and laboratory operations will remain in Perth, Australia.
JLABS @ SAN DIEGO is a 30,000-square-foot life science innovation center, located in San Diego. The labs provide a flexible environment for start-up companies pursuing new technologies and research platforms to advance medical care. Through a “no strings attached” model, JJI does not take an equity stake in the companies occupying JLABS and the companies are free to develop products — either on their own, or by initiating a separate external partnership with JJI or any other company.
Biocept receives more than 420,000 samples during
first year of offering COVID-19 testing service
Biocept Inc., a provider of molecular diagnostic assays, products and services, announced that it has received more than 420,000 samples for SARS-CoV-2 testing since launching this service in June 2020. The samples are processed using Biocept’s RT-PCR-based technology at its high-complexity molecular laboratory in San Diego.
“We are very proud of our work to help reduce viral spread by providing our community with COVID-19 testing services, as well as our consistent record for quick turnaround times and high-quality customer service,” said Michael Nall, president and CEO of Biocept.
“We also anticipate an increase in COVID-19 testing volume received from students and staff this fall when colleges return to in-person classes, following Biocept’s selection as one of four labs to serve the COVID-19 testing needs at all 116 California community colleges,” Nall said. “We believe our recently announced partnership with CLEARED4 to develop a system for tracking and managing COVID-19 testing requirements and test results will be especially helpful for our clients.”
Community event aims to help struggling
San Diegans apply for rent and utility assistance
San Diego Gas and Electric, the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC), and San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council and its member unions will come together for a one-night event on Thursday to sign folks up for the assistance they may need. City of San Diego residents experiencing financial hardship because of the COVID-19 pandemic may qualify for help from the city’s COVID-19 Housing Stability Assistance Program, which SDHC administers. This program will help qualifying households pay past-due, unpaid rent and utilities.
If funds remain available after past-due, unpaid rent payments have been made for qualifying households, the program can pay up to 25 percent of the tenant’s upcoming monthly rent for April 2021 through June 2021. The program also can help pay past-due Internet service expenses.
Where: Skyline Hills Branch Library, 7900 Paradise Hills Valley Road. 4-6 p.m.
Westcore acquires two distribution warehouses for $108 million
San Diego-based Westcore, an industrial real estate acquisition, development and asset management firm, acquired a property portfolio of two distribution warehouses in California for a combined total of more than 1.4 million square-feet of space.
Westcore acquired the properties, located at 2801 West Ave. H in Lancaster and 1744 East Beamer St. in Woodland from Jericho, New York-based Kimco Realty Corp. for $108 million. Both buildings are fully leased to Rite Aid with 20-year leases.
San Diego Community College District board
approves $878.6 million tentative budget
The San Diego Community College District’s Board of Trustees has adopted a balanced, $878.6 million tentative budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year, an increase of 12.6 percent from last year due to an unprecedented infusion of federal funds in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a better-than-expected state budget surplus.
Almost all federal and state pandemic-related funds are being directed to students in the form of direct aid grants and increased student services in support of their ability to continue their education.
Institute of the Americas announces merger
of UC’s Gulf of California Marine Program
In an effort to expand its sustainability leadership in the Western Hemisphere, the Institute of the Americas (IOA) announced the merger of the University of California’s Gulf of California Marine Program (GCMP) as a new special programmatic initiative of its organization’s Environment & Climate Change (EC2) Program. Catalina López-Sagástegui will continue in her role as the program’s director as an employee of the institute.
Established in 2008 as a research program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, GCMP was a part of the University of California Institute of Mexico and the United States based at UC Riverside since 2017. Since its establishment, GCMP has developed a successful track record of promoting conservation and sustainable management through multidisciplinary approaches, focusing on generating, analyzing and sharing scientific information to key stakeholders and policymakers involved in shaping coastal and marine policy in Mexico.
Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center
Family Campus receives $5 million gift
The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center Jacobs Family Campus has received a $5 million donation from Joan and Irwin Jacobs. The couple has invested consistently in the community building work of the Lawrence Family JCC at the Jacobs Family Campus for many decades, which led to this, the single largest gift to the LFJCC ever.
“Joan and Irwin’s extraordinary gift is the culmination of decades of philanthropy, leadership and inspiration they have offered to our community,” said Betzy Lynch, CEO of the Lawrence Family JCC of San Diego County – Jacobs Family Campus, where the Jacobs serve on the JCC advisory board. “Joan and Irwin’s passion and commitment to our work has elevated our impact on so many occasions, but at this moment in time, now more than ever, their gift has allowed us to dream and create our future.”
