Daily Business Report: Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021
The historic Marston building in Downtown
sold for $7 million to a local private investor
One of Downtown San Diego’s oldest structures, the historic Marston Building, has been sold for $7 million to a local private investor.
Located at 427 C Street, the 41,262-square-foot property was constructed in 1894 and was originally home to the Marston Family Department Store until 1912. The four-story building is walking distance from dozens of Downtown San Diego’s most popular dining, retail and entertainment destinations.
According to a history of the building by the Gaslamp Museum: “This large Italian Renaissance Revival beauty, located on the southwest corner of 5th and C St., was constructed in 1896 by Stephen W. Marston for his nephew, George W. Marston. The cost for the project, designed by the Reid Brothers, was $60,000.
“The Reid Brothers went on to design the Hotel Del Coronado, among many other noteworthy structures. The four-story rectangular building, the second of George Marston’s four stores, was constructed of brick with a flat roof and a large glass lightwell or skylight, which lit up an open court from the roof to the ground floor. A very elaborate broad terra cotta frieze of floral designs capped the structure, while the upper two floors featured patterned brick arches above large, double hung sash style windows
CBRE announced the sale of the building. CBRE’s Matt Pourcho, Hunter Rowe and Anthony DeLorenzo and DMJ’s Josh Buchholz represented the seller, HFLP II/Marston LLC, in the transaction.
Click here for a short history of the Marston Building
OriginClear engages Baja Technologies
to help launch new cryptocurrency
OriginClear Inc. announced it has engaged San Diego-based Baja Technologies Inc. to develop and help launch its new cryptocurrency, ClearAqua. The first step in the process is the white paper, expected in early October.
Riggs Eckelberry, OriginClear CEO, explained the concept in a recent video.
“Cryptocurrency has no boundaries,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginClear CEO.” A grandmother in Korea can contribute to cleaning up a mobile home park’s sewage problem in Alabama. It allows for anyone around the world to get involved and spreads the burden of changing the trillion-dollar water industry in a meaningful and impactful way. By aggregating resources, knowledge, and investment dollars, we believe we will be able to help dramatically improve the state of water by helping businesses cut the cord and take control over their own water treatment.”
Kilroy Realty signs three new leases
for life science and biotech companies
Kilroy Realty Corporation announced three new leases totaling 330,000 square feet with publicly traded life science and biotech companies in San Diego. Tandem Diabetes Care (182,000 square feet), DermTech (96,000 square feet), and Sorrento Therapeutics (52,000 square feet) lease transactions involve the redevelopment of commercial office space into three state-of-the-art life science/lab facilities and support Kilroy’s significant investment in broadening its life science portfolio.
Kilroy also plans for a 600,000-square-foot project (Santa Fe Summit) with tech office/life science flexibility on the 56 Corridor to meet the growing demand for space among life science companies in San Diego.
Geo Group enters into contract extension with U.S.
Marshals Service for Western Region Detention Facility
The GEO Group it has entered into a six-month contract extension with the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) for the 770-bed Western Region Detention Facility in San Diego, allowing the facility and its approximately 300 employees and union members to continue to provide quality services on behalf of the USMS. GEO’s Western Region Detention Facility contract with the USMS was operating under a two-year option period which was scheduled to end on Sept. 30, 2021. The extension is effective Oct. 1, 2021.
Two San Diego County schools named
2021 National Blue Ribbon Schools
Carmel Del Mar Elementary School in the Del Mar Union School District and Elevate School in the San Diego Unified School District are among the 28 California schools named 2021 National Blue Ribbon Schools by the U.S. Department of Education. The recognition is based on a school’s overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.
“This year’s cohort of honorees demonstrates what is possible when committed educators and school leaders create vibrant, welcoming, and affirming school cultures where rich teaching and learning can flourish,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
Joseph Tauber appointed chief medical
officer of AXIM Biotechnologies
San Diego-based AXIM Biotechnoloties Inc. has appointed Joseph Tauber, M.D. as chief medical officer and chairman of its Medical Advisory Board.
Tauber is the founder and CEO of Tauber Eye Center, a practice focused on corneal disease, uveitis and ocular immunology and complex corneal surgical procedures as well as Medical Director of Saving Sight, the United States’ third largest eye bank.
Tauber has been centrally involved in virtually every significant dry eye development project during the past 25 years.
He has served as a principal investigator in over 140 multicenter clinical trials including those that led to the approval of all four medications currently approved by the FDA for the treatment of dry eye – Restasis, Xiidra, Cequa and Eyesuvis.
Shannon Lantzy joins MedCrypt as vice president of consulting
MedCrypt Inc. announced the addition of Shannon Lantzy as its new vice president of consulting. Prior to joining MedCrypt, Lantzy spent six years with Booz Allen Hamilton where she led the Regulatory Science Innovation team, partnering with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to develop, test, and evaluate new approaches to regulatory decisions and benefit-risk assessments.
Lantzy also co-founded Booz Allen’s Secure Connected Health practice and brought together a diverse set of experts, cybersecurity tools, and strategies to solve cybersecurity challenges relating to patient safety.
Before Booz Allen, Lantzy was a consultant for NASA, helping with organizational strategy, capability assessment, enterprise architecture, technology adoption, and process improvement.
858 Therapeutics in $60 million Series A
financing led by investor Versant Ventures
858 Therapeutics exited stealth mode with a $60 million Series A financing led by founding investor Versant Ventures, with participation from NEA, Cormorant Asset Management and Logos Capital. Proceeds are being used to develop a portfolio of small molecules directed against novel therapeutic targets in oncology, including proteins that regulate RNA and the innate immune response.
858’s lead programs focus on the emerging fields of RNA modulation and innate immune pathways in cancer and expand upon insights from over 10 years of work by the founders at predecessor companies. Behind these, the company is pursuing emerging cancer targets in other pathways.
The management team has been responsible for the discovery of over 20 drug candidates that have advanced into clinical trials, including the approved drugs Votrient (pazopanib) and Nesina (alogliptin).
Zensar Technologies renews contract with
City of San Diego for IT services
Pune based software and services company Zensar Technologies has signed a four-year, multi-million-dollar IT contract with the City of San Diego. The contract announcement comes months after Zensar said it is merging four of its American step-down subsidiaries. The merger was expected to streamline the company’s business lines.
As part of the agreement, Zensar will deploy workplace and enterprise compute management IT services solutions for the city.
“This new agreement expands our successful partnership with city which started in 2018, bringing in exceptional value and cost benefits to the city’s constituents,” said Harjott Atrii, executive vice president of Zensar Technologies.
Zensar will deploy solutions to support over 1,000 city servers and associated storage that hosts 300 applications associated with the city’s services.
The company will provide support systems for the public cloud, which includes support for departmental call centers, disaster recovery capabilities and more secure data storage.
San Diego American Indian Health Center
to host annual Balboa Park Pow Wow
The San Diego American Indian Health Center (SDAIHC) will host its annual Balboa Park Pow Wow on October 2-3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the corner of Park Blvd. and President’s Way. This year the event will be held in recognition of the late Saginaw Grant for his leadership and many contributions to the American Indian community. Everyone is welcome to attend this free, family-friendly event.
Pow Wow’s are traditional spiritual and cultural events which feature native drumming, singing, and dancing. For years, the American Indian community throughout the San Diego area has celebrated these traditions by gathering at the Balboa Park Pow Wow. Participants of all ages will be present from various American Indian/Alaskan Native Tribes, bands, and communities, and invite all to come and share in this wonderful experience.
The emcee for the event will be Randy Edmonds. Each day will begin with recognizing and honoring the Kumeyaay people, who homelands include Balboa Park, with beautiful Bird Songs, followed by Gourd Dancing, Inter-Tribal Dancing, and Honorings. Vendors will be selling handmade jewelry, pottery, basketry, clothing and a variety of other crafts and goods. Food venders will offer delectable American Indian dishes such as fry bread and Indian Tacos in addition to other treats.
Airport unveils ‘Make Yourself at Home’ exhibition
San Diego International Airport’s Arts Program has unveiled the Make Yourself at Home exhibition with artwork located throughout Terminal 2.
The exhibitionfeatures 16 distinct exhibitors whose artwork and collections explore how the concept of home differs for each person and shapes our memories, identities, and sense of belonging in an increasingly nomadic world. Artists rely on the motif of home as a way to draw connections between personal histories, and timely political themes including immigration, homelessness, urban planning, race, and gender.
Selected by a jury of arts professionals, Make Yourself at Home features artists who were chosen based on their creativity, unique use of media, and relevance to the exhibition theme. Types of artwork in the exhibition include sculpture, painting, photography, video, woven textiles, ceramics, site-specific installation, and more.
“The timing of this collection couldn’t be better considering many of us spent a large part of 2020 at home during the pandemic and have different takeaways on the meaning of home, as well as what it means to be able to leave home and then return,” said Airport Authority’s Chris Chalupsky, senior manager of the Arts Program.
