Daily Business Report: Tuesday, May 17, 2022
UC San Diego’s new Downtown hub
Park & Market opens to the public
by Jade Griffin
From performances by renowned local musicians and a Family Arts Open House, to a conversation with Los Angeles Times columnist and award-winning author Jean Guerrero, UC San Diego Park & Market — the university’s long-planned presence in Downtown San Diego— opened to the community with a bang.
Located on a full city block at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Market Street in San Diego’s East Village neighborhood, and steps away from the Blue Line Trolley connecting UC San Diego’s main campus with the U.S.-Mexico border, UC San Diego Park & Market is designed to serve the entire San Diego community as a social and intellectual hub for civic engagement, learning and collaboration. The flexibly designed space represents the university’s commitment to connecting with the cultural heritage and shared values of the region’s diverse social, cultural and economic community.
Local businessman and philanthropist Malin Burnham and his wife, Roberta Burnham, committed a $3 million gift to support the partnership between the Burnham Center for Community Advancement and UC San Diego in their creation of a “civic collaboratory” at Park & Market. The collaboratory will be focused on bringing great minds together from all backgrounds to focus on advancing the region. The Burnham Center for Community Advancement—a think-and-do tank that serves as the nexus where community stakeholders and multi-sector partners come together to identify regional needs, find innovative solutions and tackle some of our binational region’s most pressing issues—is housed at Park & Market.
TOP PHOTO by Erik Jepsen/University Communications.
General Atomics awarded delivery order
for the Navy’s new Columbia-class submarine
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has been awarded a task order from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division to provide structural hardware for the propulsor of the Navy’s new Columbia-class submarine. The delivery task order is part of a Propulsor Demonstration Hardware contract to develop and deliver critical components and hardware for installation on current and future U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarines.
“This task order involves the precision machining of components to extremely tight tolerances and demanding material specifications, and the delivery of approximately ten thousand pounds of hardware that will affix the Propulsor Bearing Support Structure, already provided by GA-EMS, to the submarine,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS.
“The delivery will meet the shipyard’s schedule for the installation of critical components onto the first Columbia-class submarine currently under construction, and it will provide the manufacturing template for these structures in follow-on ships of this class.”
The hardware is scheduled for delivery in early 2023. Engineering is underway at GA-EMS’ San Diego and Tupelo, Miss. facilities, with all manufacturing occurring in Tupelo.
Gov. Newsom proposes $80 million
investment in SDSU Imperial Valley site
In his May Budget Revise, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he has included $80 million in new funding – significant, historic funding – for an San Diego State University facility in Imperial Valley that will drastically expand educational, research, and economic development opportunities in Imperial County.
The announcement follow’s SDSU’s plan, and existing institutional investments, to redevelop SDSU Imperial Valley’s Brawley campus into a 65,000 square foot Innovation Campus to house science, technology, chemistry, engineering and mathematics programming. The existing plan would support efforts to enhance California’s clean energy sector.
SDSU has already invested $15 million toward the plan and, under de la Torre’s leadership over the last four years, has expanded the range of new programs and offerings at SDSU Imperial Valley.
New study could help reveal new
treatments for tuberculosis
Sanford Burnham Prebys researchers have uncovered the structure of an important protein for the growth of tuberculosis bacteria. The study, from the lab of Francesca Marassi, published recently in Nature Communications, sheds light on an unusual metabolic system in tuberculosis, which could help yield new treatments for the disease and help make existing therapies more effective.
“Molecular discoveries like this give us valuable insight into how these bacteria survive, which is important in terms of finding cures for tuberculosis, and for other areas of health and biology,” says James Kent, a candidate working in Marassi’s lab. “For example, bacteria in this family pose problems in both human health and agriculture, such as leprosy and bovine tuberculosis.”
City College student awarded prestigious
Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship
Jeannette Mayo Gallegos, a student at San Diego City College, is one of 100 recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s prestigious Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. The highly competitive national scholarship will provide Gallegos with up to $55,000 a year to complete a bachelor’s degree.
Growing up, Gallegos spent time living in San Diego and Tijuana while attending San Diego High School. She will be graduating this spring from San Diego City College with an associate degree in computer science and transferring to UC Berkeley in the fall. Gallegos plans to major in computer science and pursue a career as a software or security engineer in the cybersecurity field. “This scholarship,” she said, “will allow me to pursue my education without worrying about food, housing, and supplies. I will get to focus on my educational goals.”
New Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholars will receive comprehensive educational advise to guide them through the process of transitioning to a four-year college and preparing for their careers. Along with financial support, Scholars will additionally receive opportunities for internships, study abroad, and graduate school funding, as well as connection to a thriving network of over nearly 3,000 Cooke Scholars and Alumni.
Vote now to help Birch Aquarium name a penguin
Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is one step closer to naming one of its Little Blue Penguins. Aquarium fans submitted nearly 2,000 names during the naming campaign that was launched on World Penguin Day (April 25). The aquarium’s team faced the exciting task of narrowing those entries down to just five for the public to vote on.
The final choices are:
- Diego – for his new home in San Diego, the only place in Western U.S. where you can find Little Blue Penguins
- Flip – a nod to penguin flippers and FLIP, the FLoating Instrument Platform that was operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography for over 50 years
- Triton – for this small but mighty (penguin) ruler of the sea that highlights Birch Aquarium’s connection to the UC San Diego community
- Azulito – just as the ocean is interconnected, Azulito means little blue in Spanish and highlights the unique interconnectedness of our binational region
- Torrey – highlights the conservation of unique species, like the endangered Torrey Pines found only in San Diego and the Channel Islands
The public is invited to vote for their favorite name at aquarium.ucsd.edu between now and the end of the month. Voting closes on May 29 at 5 p.m. PT. The final name will be announced on June 2, 2022.
KB Home holds grand opening of Silverado,
a new townhome community in Vista
KB Home announced the grand opening of Silverado, a new townhome community in Vista.The new enclave of homes is situated on Smilax Road, just south of Highway 78 and convenient to Interstates 5 and 15.
The new townhomes at Silverado showcase popular design characteristics like spacious kitchens overlooking large great rooms, expansive bedroom suites with walk-in closets, and ample storage space. The community’s floor plans feature up to three bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths, and range in size from approximately 1,600 to 1,900 square feet. Homeowners will enjoy the community’s planned amenities, which include 30 guest parking spots, BBQ areas, a park, children’s play area and turf dog park. Silverado is also zoned for the popular San Marcos Unified School District and is walking distance to Joli Ann Leichtag elementary school.
The Silverado sales office and model homes are open for walk-in visits and private in-person tours by appointment. Homebuyers also have the flexibility to arrange a live video tour with a sales counselor. Pricing begins from the mid $700,000s. For more information on KB Home, visit kbhome.com.
Southwest selects Viasat to provide inflight Wi-Fi
Southwest Airlines has selected Viasat’s high-speed inflight connectivity service for all its new aircraft deliveries beginning this fall. The Carlsbad-based telecom company will provide Southwest fliers the ability to stream content and entertainment, watch live television, and access social media platforms and productivity applications on any device.
Aspen Neuroscience raises $147.5 million Series B
La Jolla’s Aspen Neuroscience has closed a $147.5 million Series B financing round. The biotech company will use the funds to combine its stem cell biology with innovative AI-based genomics tools to develop patient-specific approaches for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Cubic names Matt Luxton as senior VP and general counsel
Cubic Corporation announced the appointment of Matt Luxton as senior vice president and general counsel. Luxton will lead, manage, and advise on all legal affairs to support the Company’s operations and business growth initiatives, with far reaching impacts across the company. He will report to Stevan Slijepcevic, president and chief executive officer, effective May 12.
“I am very pleased to welcome Matt to our Cubic executive leadership team,” said Stevan Slijepcevic, president and chief executive officer. “Matt’s diverse portfolio of experience across multiple domains, strong technical and financial skills coupled with legal acumen makes him an asset to Cubic.”
Prior to joining Cubic, Luxton held multiple leadership roles at General Dynamics; vice president & general counsel for General Dynamics NASSCO/General Dynamics BIW, vice president and chief financial officer and most recently as vice president & general counsel; Safety & Security for Electric Boat.
Startup Turquoise Health makes it easier to compare medical costs
Turquoise Health, a San Diego startup that aims to enable price shopping for health care, has raised $20 million from marquee venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Ventures, Box Group and Tiger Global. Launched in 2020, the company has built a subscription software platform that curates millions of price records published by hospitals.
Longtime developers to build attainable housing
Hilltop Crossing, a new development planned for the corner of Euclid Avenue and Hilltop Drive in San Diego, will bring 47 much-needed housing units to the area. The project not only creates attainable housing but also engages diverse sub-contractors and incorporates thoughtful energy-efficient features.
Longtime San Diego developers Ito Girard & Associates and Jack McGrory of La Jolla MJ Management, are building attainable housing units at Hilltop Crossing for households earning 81 percent to 120 percent of the Area Median Income, or AMI. Attainable housing units, as opposed to deed-restricted affordable housing units, are built without any special subsidies for developers.
MyCase announces acquisition of Docketwise
MyCase, a San Diego-based provider of cloud-based legal practice management software
and payment services to law firms, has acquired Docketwise, the top-rated and largest immigration software platform that serves more than 6,000 immigration practitioners. The two products now integrate to connect the smartest immigration software with the most intuitive practice management platform.
When Docketwise was founded in 2016, its founders Jeremy Peskin and James Pittman, innovated a unique approach to preparing immigration cases by using intake questionnaires to generate immigration applications dynamically. The software also offers all-in-one case management for immigration law firms, including case tracking, mobile apps, workflows, two-way text messaging, and billing and trust accounting.
