Daily Business Report: Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022
Past decisions complicate efforts to fill
city jobs amid pandemic crunch
By Lisa Halverstadt | Voice of San Diego
The city started the year with more than 1,900 vacancies in its libraries, recreation centers and various city departments. That’s the equivalent of nearly 16 percent of city positions with standard working hours.
The city is taking some steps to try to make its hundreds of openings more competitive so it can deliver the services residents expect, but longstanding issues complicate its hiring push.
For one, the city can’t move as swiftly as businesses can to increase pay or institute sign-on bonuses. The city’s hiring process can drag on for months for even high-demand positions. And the city is also confronting the aftershocks of a 2021 pension reform measure
that halted across-the-board raises and pensions for new employees for years. The latter for years put the city at a competitive disadvantage with other local governments that did offer pensions and raises.
Now the city is trying to make up for those past decisions during a pandemic that has only added to its hiring challenges.
For example, it resumed offering pensions to new hires last July following a court ruling that overturned the pension initiative.
TOP PHOTO: Alexis Acquarole, a library assistant, organizes books at the Central Library in Downtown San Diego on Dec. 15, 2021. / Photo by Adriana Heldiz/Voice of San Diego
JLL arranges $265 million refinancing for
Master-planned beach resort in Oceanside
JLL represented the borrower, S.D. Malkin Properties, to secure the loan through ACORE Capital. Proceeds from this refinance were used to retire that construction facility, including a significant mezzanine loan. The new loan will provide cost savings, term and flexibility for the sponsor.
Completed in May 2021, the adjacent world-class design-oriented hotels are located on a 2.75-acre, two-block site spanning 700 feet of beachfront real estate. Operated by Hyatt, both hotels offer ocean views, direct beach access, an entire ecosystem of food and beverage experiences, interior meeting and function space, two pools with views of the Pacific, and access to some of the best surfing on the California coast. The site also features the historic 1887 beach cottage featured in the Top Gun movie, which will open soon as a nostalgic dessert bar.
City of San Diego lands on MovieMaker Magazine’s
Top 25 Best Places to Live and Work list for 2022
The City of San Diego has once again landed in the spotlight in Hollywood after being named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s Top 25 Best Places to Live and Work for 2022.
MovieMaker Magazinedetermined San Diego to be No. 17 on the list based on surveys, research on financial incentives and recent productions. In addition, the magazine staff made personal visits to most of the cities and towns on the list while factoring health and safety considerations related to how they addressed the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like many other cities across the nation, San Diego paused production at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The film office worked with state, county and local film industry groups to implement guidelines that allowed reopening in a safe manner for crews and communities alike, in compliance with county and state public health orders.
Despite the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic, San Diego was able to successfully attract projects to the area including Netflix’s feature “Purple Hearts” starring Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galizine, Amazon Prime’s original scripted series, “The Terminal List,” several reality TV shows, and national advertising campaigns for Apple, Lowe’s, NFL, Traeger, Facebook and more.
City begins Ocean Beach Pier repairs
By Dave Schwab | sdnews.com
The Ocean Beach Pier is currently undergoing emergency repairs to fix damage caused by storm conditions in January 2021,” said City of San Diego spokesperson Tyler Becker. “These repairs include the implementation of pile jackets to allow for proper load transfer on two damaged piles on the pier’s west end. Right now, the city’s contractor is assembling scaffolding in preparation for repairs.”
Scaffolding assembly is estimated to take another week. “Following that is an estimated eight weeks of repair work, depending on the weather and tidal conditions,” said Becker. “The pier is expected to fully reopen upon completion of these repairs. The contract for the emergency construction is for an amount not to exceed $450,000.”
Read more…
SDSU chemists receive prestigious
Grants for innovative research
With $1.7 million in new grant funding from the National Science Foundation, San Diego State University chemists Youngkwang Lee and Yong Yan are conducting innovative research projects that mimic nature’s chemical reactions to design better disease-fighting drugs.
Biophysical chemist Lee creates artificial cell membranes so he can study how a family of proteins, called Raf kinases, are commonly disrupted in cancerous cells and kickoff reaction chains.
Yan, an inorganic chemist, and his team are developing a method that attempts to emulate photosynthesis catalysts to eventually make pharmaceutical drugs cheaper and more sustainable to produce.
Lee and Yan receiving the prestigious award shows a trend at the university. Since 1998, SDSU has received 23 NSF CAREER awards. Nearly half of them – 11 awards – have gone to early career faculty within just the last three years.
Board of Supervisors clear way for
Future of San Pasqual Academy
The County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to sustain the future of San Pasqual Academy and expand the services provided at the residential education campus for foster youth.
The State of California had directed the county to close the group home located in the San Pasqual Valley near Escondido by the end of last year, but a San Diego Superior Court judge placed an injunction on the closure in December, allowing the campus to continue operating for the foreseeable future.
The plan approved by the board will allow the campus to maintain existing services for current students while adapting to changing guidance and regulations from the state.
The Board’s actions let the academy transition to a continuum of care multipurpose campus. It will be able to keep its existing group home license while extending its services to a wider population of youths, including temporary shelter care for foster youths needing emergency or temporary care.
Dana Porter Higgins promoted to VP
business development for Visit Oceanside
Visit Oceanside has promoted Dana Porter Higgins to Vice President of Business Development. In her expanded role, Higgins will continue to lead the sales department while focusing on product development and strategic partnership opportunities for the popular Southern California beach destination.
Since joining the Visit Oceanside team in 2011, Higgins has successfully grown the group business department. Among her achievements include creating a client services/concierge program to assist groups in site selection, developing an active sales funnel and marketing tools for stimulating new leads, and bringing new high-profile events to Oceanside in the off-season such as the Pan American Beach Handball Championships, Honor Bowl, Life Time Tri and VISSLA ISA World Junior Surf Championships. T
Higgins has over 23 years of sales and marketing experience in hospitality and tourism. Her experience includes working with private business and country clubs, restaurant and entertainment venues, and an award-winning destination health spa resort. She is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. with a bachelor’s degree in advertising and marketing communications.
Daniel Fallon promoted to equity
Partner at Tyson & Mendes LLP
National civil defense firm Tyson & Mendes LLP announced the promotion of Daniel Fallon to equity partner in the San Diego office.
Fallon leads a group of litigators specializing in professional liability, personal injury, general commercial liability and business litigation. Fallon began his work at Tyson & Mendes as senior counsel in 2014 and has secured positive case resolutions for numerous clients, including a defense verdict following a contentious professional liability trial and a directed verdict against negligence and fraud allegations.
Fallon has routinely secured judgments in favor of his defense clients through strategic motion work upheld on appeal.
Fallon attended Hamilton College in upstate New York and worked at a multinational law firm on Wall Street before obtaining his law degree at the University of San Diego School of Law.
He served on the board of irectors for San Diego Defense Lawyers and is a Barrister with the American Inn of Court, Hon. William B. Enright chapter.
TOOTRiS expands child care platform
Across all 50 states, easing child care crisis
San Diego-based TOOTRiS has expanded its on-demand child care platform to all 50 states, boasting more than 180,000 licensed providers currently on its platform, the largest network of available, real-time child care options in the nation.
The expansion provides much-needed resources and tools to thousands of parents, providers and employers at a time when communities across the nation face an alarming child care deficit because of the pandemic.
While COVID continues to ravage the nation, working families are struggling as thousands of child care providers have closed their doors. This has left millions of desperate parents who are either juggling working from home while watching the kids or who are quitting work all together.
The nationwide TOOTRiS rollout is a milestone for the startup, founded in 2019 to transform child care so that every working parent — especially women — has the same opportunity for advancement by having access to affordable, high quality child care; and so that every child, regardless of household income, has the same opportunity to early childhood education that can ensure their kindergarten readiness, and academic success.
Downtown Works opens coworking space in Pacific Beach
Downtown Works, known for its coworking space in Little Italy and Carlsbad, has opened a 7,000 square foot coworking building at 4438 Ingraham St. in Pacific Beach. The space features 30 private sound-proof furnished offices, plentiful workstations, sound-proof private phone booths and two large conference rooms with the latest audio-visual equipment for hybrid and in-person meetings. Rigorous safety protocols, medical-grade air purifiers, and physical distancing measures provide safety and comfort to members and guests.
Downtown Works PB members also have access to locations in Downtown San Diego, Carlsbad, and more than 60 coworking spaces throughout seven countries, via the brand’s partnership with LeXC.
Greater San Diego Association of Realtors
Offers variety of education classes
The Greater San Diego Association of Realtors is hosting an extensive lineup of training and professional development courses in 2022, providing members with tools to better serve their clients and grow their business.
SDAR is providing a range of options for free in-person classes and live webinars taught by subject matter experts. Over 600 classes were held in 2021, and SDAR is adding more classes and resources to the education offerings in the coming year to ensure members have the opportunity to stay up to date on the latest tools and real estate guidelines to support their business.
“The education courses offered by SDAR make it easier to stay up to speed on changes to our industry so that members can stay focused on their business,” said SDAR President Chris Anderson.
For more information, contact SDAR at (858) 715-8000 or visit www.sdar.com/education.
MG Properties acquires more than
$1.6 billion in multifamily assets
Private San Diego-based real estate investor and operator MG Properties announced its acquisition of over $1.6 billion of multifamily assets in 2021.
Spread throughout major markets across the West Coast, MG added 14 properties and over 4,700 units to their portfolio in the 2021 calendar year – marking the most successful year for acquisitions since the company’s founding in 1992. These included an entry into Denver, Colorado, a market the company had long targeted for growth.
MG Properties continues to target further acquisitions in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and Colorado.
MG Properties continues to actively seek new acquisitions, targeting a similar volume of investment in 2022. The multifamily group focuses on value-add, new construction, and core-plus multifamily properties in the Western United States.
Koji announces $20 million funding
Koji, a leading app store for the creator economy, announced a $20 million financing led by Jump Capital, with participation from new investors HBSE Ventures, Electric Feel Ventures, Visary Capital, Metaversal, and University Growth Ventures, existing investors like Galaxy Interactive and BITKRAFT, and prominent media and technology individuals like Shivakumar Rajaraman, Michael Eisner, Francis Ma, and over 30 others.
Since launching in March 2021, over 150 thousand creators use Koji’s Link in Bio platform and over 200 apps to engage with their audiences. Koji’s app store includes everything from fun novelties like customizable games to powerful utilities like Shoutout, an app that lets creators offer customized videos to their fans. Koji recently announced a suite of innovative Web3 apps, including commerce apps that offer product discounts for customers who own specific NFTs.
Sanford Burnham Prebys to host
First Rising Stars Symposium
As part of its ongoing effort to educate and train the innovators of tomorrow, Sanford Burnham Prebys is inviting early-career researchers from underrepresented groups in the biomedical sciences to apply for the first-ever Rising Stars Symposium.
Selected Rising Stars will be invited all-expenses-paid to the institute to present their research, network and learn more about postdoctoral opportunities. The deadline to apply is February 15.
The event is being organized by Sanford Burnham Prebys’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
(DEI) Recruiting Committee, who strive to help the institute maintain an inclusive workplace and use recruiting strategies that are equitable and result in increased representation for underrepresented groups.
Interested candidates should submit an online application, upload a CV, and provide contact information of a mentor that can serve as a reference.
WHAM and La Jolla Institute for Immunology
In partnership to accelerate health research
WHAM (Women’s Health Access Matters, whamnow.org) and La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) announced a new partnership to accelerate immune health research focused on women. New data released by WHAM and LJI shows that autoimmune research focused on women could generate $10.5 billion to our economy through improving health, quality of life and productive years in the workforce. Building from these findings, LJI, a globally ranked research leader, announced a new sex-based differences research focus at the institute.
“Women’s health is an economic issue that impacts everyone, and we can’t afford to ignore it,” said WHAM Chief Executive Officer and Founder Carolee Lee. “The WHAM Report shows clearly that when we invest in women’s health research the economic benefits for everyone are huge. We are proud to partner with the forward-thinking and innovative La Jolla Institute for Immunology. Building out a research focus on women in immune and autoimmune disease will lead to critical innovations and breakthroughs that transform women’s lives and boost our economy.”
