Daily Business Report: Monday, April 18, 2022
Daria Sharko escapes Russia’s repressive education
system and finds fulfillment at MiraCosta College
Daria Sharko left Russia to escape a repressive education system that offered her no opportunity to pursue her goals. At MiraCosta College, Daria is confident her dreams can become a reality.
“I started to believe in a better future here,” Sharko explains. “I always had dreams, but now they are bigger and bolder—and now I believe they can come true. That’s what MiraCosta helped me to understand.”
Sharko is the first international student to participate in MiraCosta’s groundbreaking program offering a bachelor’s degree in biomanufacturing. MiraCosta is one of 15 community colleges in California to offer a bachelor’s degrees to their students.
Sharko grew up in the Russian port city of Novorossiysk, where she observed that students were humiliated and punished by their teachers. Sharko saw little hope of pursuing her interest in biology there. When she came to San Diego County with her husband in June 2016, she started taking classes at MiraCosta College because her brother-in-law was studying there.
At MiraCosta, Sharko found an atmosphere where students were supported and treated with respect, far different from what she had experienced in Russia. Falling in love with California, Sharko and her husband decided to remain here while both pursued their education.
They eventually intended to return to their home in Russia, but the invasion of Ukraine has changed those plans. Sharko’s home is near the Ukraine border, and she has had limited contact with her family as the Russian government shuts down social media and other communication channels. “We are lost. We do not know what to do,” says Daria. “We do not share in the regime. We are completely against this war.”
TOP PHOTO: Russian-born college student Daria Sharko
In landscape architect’s eyes, airport’s new
Terminal 1 will celebrate our canyons, riparian areas
by Delle Willett
Landscape Architect Patricia Trauth said it’s the “coolest, most demanding and exciting project of my career.” She is talking about the re-creation of San Diego International Airport’s Terminal 1, originally opened in 1967 with renovation begun in 2020 and scheduled to open in May, 2028.
Trauth, principal landscape architect at Rick Engineering Co., explained that while Terminal 1 and 2 will have many unifying elements, they also have their own identity—Terminal 2 symbolically represents our beaches and the ocean, while 1 celebrates San Diego’s treasured canyons and riparian areas.
“We are focusing on the canyon,” she said. It is the busiest area where people will be going from point A to B, as they get dropped off and picked up.
Just east of the canyon area is a low point in the landscape with a retention basin for stormwater management—a perfect location for a riparian area where visitors can experience San Diego’s native plants and birds and admire three large and colorful bird sculptures. Forty to fifty feet tall, and celebrating the Pacific Flyway for migratory birds, the birds are created by artist Walter Hood.
Travelers, both coming and going, often have anxieties and concerns. It is Trauth’s focus to make them as comfortable as possible. “Anything we can do intuitively to help travelers feel more comfortable while getting them to their destination is our goal,” she said.
“We are working with Gensler Architects to create intuitive directional design,” said Trauth. Some of the tools are way-finding signs, color-coded lobbies and levels in the parking structure, lighting, clusters of trees as a focal point, and color pattern and texture in the concrete pavement.
And for traveling pets, there are three pet-relief areas at Terminal 1. “San Diego was one of the first airports in the country to have pet-relief areas. Now you see them everywhere. It’s something we’ve integrated into the design in a wholistic manner that celebrates our canyon concept,” said Trauth.
Project Management Advisors and Swinerton
reach topping out at Sorrento Gateway project
Project Management Advisors Inc. (PMA) and Swinerton recently celebrated the construction topping out for Sorrento Gateway at 4930 Directors Place, San Diego, a research and laboratory facility for Healthpeak Properties, a national healthcare REIT. It is anticipated to be delivered in January 2023.
The topping out at Sorrento Gateway signifies that the ground-up construction of the 163,000-square-foot, five-story building has reached its tallest height. The project will include a fitness center, an indoor/outdoor café, restrooms, storage rooms, and 90,000 square feet of basement parking.
PMA is providing project management services, partnering with Swinerton as general contractor, for this and other Healthpeak projects throughout the San Diego area. PMA and Swinerton are collaborating with architect Delawie on this project. A celebration for the topping out was held on April 6, and included leaders from Healthpeak, PMA, Swinerton, Delawie, KPFF, SME Steel and several other design, engineering and trade partners on the project.
Planet Based Foods announces e-commerce platform launch
Planet Based Foods Global Inc., a San Diego-based sustainable food startup offering plant-based meat alternatives, debuts its newly launched e-commerce platform that features a selection of Planet Based Foods’ popular vegan options for purchase.
Powerfully formulated using superfood hemp as the primary ingredient, the wide range of innovative products now listed online include The Original Burger, the Green Chili Southwest Burger, Breakfast Sausage Patties Hot and Mild, The Original Crumble, The Italian Sausage Crumble and the Variety Pack.
Units can be purchased through the Planet Based Foods website for $19 each plus $10 shipping, and will be available nationwide.
San Diego’s BioMed Realty acquires
life sciences acreage in Seattle, Wash.
San Diego-based BioMed Realty, a provider of real estate solutions to the life science and technology industries, announced the acquisition of Denny Park South in Seattle, Wash. Located in the South Lake Union/Denny Triangle district, the 1.6-acre property consists of two adjacent parcels in close proximity to industry-leading life science and technology companies and research institutions. The proposed 616,000-square-foot development will provide additional optionality for prospective and existing BioMed tenants as they seek purpose-built buildings to accommodate research.
“We now have the ability to double our footprint in the Seattle market and continue investing in mission-critical lab infrastructure needed to meet strong tenant demand as life science and technology companies grow and scale in the region,” said Tim Schoen, CEO.
Record share of homebuyers are relocating
as nation’s housing costs skyrocket
A record 32.3 percent of Redfin.com users nationwide looked to move to a different metro area in the first quarter, according to a new report from Redfin, the real estate brokerage.
That’s up from 31.5 percebta year earlier and up significantly from 26 percentin 2019, before the pandemic.
Skyrocketing home prices and rising mortgage rates have made relocating to a more affordable area the only viable option for some prospective homebuyers. The share of homebuyers looking to relocate to other parts of the country picked up in mid-2020 as the pandemic took hold, and it has remained elevated since then. The combination of last year’s record-low mortgage rates and remote work encouraged many Americans to relocate.
Continually increasing home prices–along with quickly rising mortgage rates, which make monthly payments even higher —are adding fuel to the fire this year. As more homebuyers move away from pricey coastal areas, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston, we’re seeing early signs of a housing-market slowdown in those metros.
West Health’s Shelley Lyford receives
American Society on Aging Award
Shelley Lyford, chair and CEO of San Diego-based West Health, a family of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations dedicated to lowering health care costs to improve aging in America, received the American Society on Aging (ASA) Award, an honor given for outstanding contributions to aging-related research, administration, and advocacy.
The ASA Award was presented in New Orleans at ASAS’s On Aging 2022, the largest annual conference on aging in the United States.
At West Health, Lyford guides successful aging strategy, high-impact initiatives, and grantmaking that shape aging policy and practice and fuel the development, adoption, and expansion of new models of care including geriatric emergency departments, senior dental clinics, and PACE programs.
Under Lyford’s leadership for the past 15 years, the Gary and Mary West Foundation has awarded more than 650 grants totaling nearly a quarter billion dollars to nonprofit organizations that conduct research or provide direct care and services to seniors, their families, and caregivers.
City of San Diego accepts applications
for Storefront Improvement Program
The City of San Diego is accepting applications for its Storefront Improvement Program (SIP). In it, the city provides free professional design assistance and financial incentives to small business owners who wish to make a creative change to and improve the curb appeal of their storefronts. In fiscal year 2021, the SIP completed 18 projects throughout the city and provided $148,500 in incentives, leveraging $235,400 in private funds.
Eligible improvements include the repair, replacement or new applications of awnings, windows, doors, lighting, paint, landscaping, tile or other decorative material and signs. The removal of security bars and code compliance for signage violations are also eligible for the rebate.
For applications, click here
Halozyme Therapeutics to acquire
Antares Pharma for $960 million
San Diego-based Halozyme Therapeutics will acquire New Jersey-based Antares Pharma in a $960 million all-cash deal. Halozyme will grow its drug delivery footprint through the acquisition, adding Antares’ injection products to its existing drug delivery offerings, currently licensed to Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb.
San Diego firms make Fortune’s 100 Best Companies
Fortune recently named San Diego’s Intuit and ServicesNow, as well as EDC Investors Bank of America and Scripps Health among the United States’ 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2022. Companies are ranked using employee responses on workplace trust, respect, credibility, fairness, pride, and camaraderie.
The Honest Kitchen lands $150 million
for ‘human-grade’ pet food
The Honest Kitchen, a San Diego maker of human-grade pet food, has raised $150 million in VC to boost its manufacturing, marketing, product development, and sustainability initiatives. The raise reflects a recent surge in demand for wellness products from pet retailers like San Diego-based Petco and Real Dog Box.
Encinitas activewear startup Vuori
expands to 7 international locations
Encinitas activewear company Vuori is expanding its brand internationally as it rides the momentum of being one of San Diego’s largest startups. Shoppers in seven countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia and Canada will now have access to the Southern California apparel brand online and in stores.
The local company reported its valuation at $4 billion last October following a $400 million investment by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. This marked one of the largest investment rounds for a San Diego startup.
