Daily Business Report: Monday, June 6, 2022
$275 million financing secured for construction
to begin on long-awaited Chula Vista Bayfront project
The Port of San Diego and the City of Chula Vista have successfully secured $275 million in public bond funding for construction on the Chula Vista Bayfront, enabling the flagship Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center project to break ground.
Officials from the Port and the City gathered at Bayside Park on June 2, 2022 to announce the close of escrow for the complex bond funding transaction.
The public financing of $275 million in bonds, along with other funding sources, is essential for constructing the new convention center, a new park, site preparation, utility connections, and improvements to streets surrounding the site.
Now that these final milestones are complete, construction can begin on the 1,600-room Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center and a groundbreaking celebration will be scheduled this summer.
The project is anticipated to create 3,580 jobs during construction alone. Once open, it is expected to have an economic impact of half-a-billion dollars each year and produce 4,000 permanent jobs.
TOP PHOTO: Rendering of the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center, part of the Chula Vista Bayfront project. (Courtesy of RIDA Chula Vista).
Gov. Gavin Newsom appoints four new
judges to San Diego Superior Court
Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed four San Diego area attorneys to the San Diego Superior Court bench to replace four judges who have retired. Each of the new judges — all Democrats — will receive $225,074 in pay.
Charles E. Bell Jr., 40, of San Diego, has been the city attorney at the City of National City, since 2020. He served as an assistant city attorney at the San Luis Obispo City Attorney’s Office from 2019 to 2020. Bell served as chief deputy city attorney and deputy city attorney at the San Diego City Attorney’s Office from 2014 to 2019. He worked at McCarthy & Holthus LLP from 2008 to 2014. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Richard E.L. Strauss.
Adelaida Lopez, 45, of San Marcos, has been a deputy public defender III at the County of San Diego, Office of the Primary Public Defender since 2006. Lopez earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Sharon B. Majors-Lewis.
Peter A. Lynch, 62, of San Diego, has been vice chair, office managing partner at Cozen O’Connor since 1988. He worked at Frank & Freedus as an associate from 1987 to 1988 and at USMC Legal Services Support Detachment Yuma as defense counsel, prosecutor and legal assistance officer from 1985 to 1987. Lynch earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Southern Illinois University School of Law. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Amalia L. Meza.
Christopher S. Morris, 57, of San Diego, has been a sole practitioner since 2004. He worked at Aguirre and Severson as a partner from 2008 to 2013. Morris worked at the San Diego City Attorney’s Office in several roles, including assistant city attorney head of Criminal Division from 2004 to 2007. He worked at Higgs, Fletcher, and Mack as an associate in 1995. Morris earned a Juris Doctor degree from Brigham Young University Law School. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Margo Lewis Hoy.
San Diego City Council chooses three
finalists for Midway District redevelopment
by Dave Schwab
San Diego City Council has unanimously chosen three finalists out of a field of five to redevelop the 48-acre former Sports Arena site to be anchored by affordable housing in the Midway District.
Eliminated from the competition were Neighborhood Next, and Discover Midway, leavingMidway Rising, HomeTownSD, and Midway Village+.
City staff evaluated all five proposals on several criteria, with top priority given to the total amount of affordable housing they proposed, as well as their experience with building sports arenas.
The 48-acre Sports Arena site is viewed by the City as a potential catalyst for broader revitalization of the long-blighted Midway District. However, hanging over – and perhaps hanging up – the project is an ongoing court challenge to the 2020 voter-approved removal of the 30-foot coastal height limit in the Midway District. A judge in 2021 blocked the implementation of the measure, contending the City had failed to properly evaluate the environmental impacts of taller buildings.
Jennifer Moran appointed deputy director
for the Office of Digital Innovation
Jennifer Moran, 38, of San Diego, has been appointed deputy director of operations at the California Office of Digital Innovation by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who created the new agency to help streamline the state’s delivery of digital services.
She has served as deputy director of talent at the office since 2021.
She was deputy director of business operations at Technology Transformation Services from 2019 to 2021, where she was cting director for talent in 2019 and product and process lead from 2016 to 2019.
Moran was deputy director of the Queens Campaign Office for Mayor Michael Bloomberg Re-election Campaign in 2005.
This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $164,328. Moran is a Democrat.
Scientists raise alarm when atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels reach new high at observatory
Carbon dioxide measured at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s mountaintop observatory on Hawaii’s Big Island peaked in May at an average 420 parts per million, pushing the atmosphere further into territory not seen for millions of years, scientists at NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography report.
“The science is irrefutable: humans are altering our climate in ways that our economy and our infrastructure must adapt to,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. “We can see the impacts of climate change around us every day. The relentless increase of carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa is a stark reminder that we need to take urgent, serious steps to become a more climate-ready nation.”
CO2 pollution is generated by burning fossil fuels for transportation and electrical generation, by cement manufacturing, deforestation, agriculture and by many other practices. Along with other greenhouse gases, CO2 traps heat radiating from the planet’s surface that would otherwise escape into space, causing the planet’s atmosphere to warm steadily, which unleashes a cascade of weather impacts, including episodes of extreme heat, drought and wildfire activity, as well as heavier precipitation, flooding and tropical storm activity.
Scripps Research Institute receives $4.1 million
from NIH to advance studies on prion disease
Sandra Encalada of Scripps Research, has been awarded $4.1 million from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, for research into how prion diseases kill brain cells. Some prion diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), can arise sporadically or from an inherited mutation in the prion protein. In other cases, prion diseases can be transmissible between animals or—in even more rare instances—infect people who eat contaminated meat. Whatever the underlying cause, prion diseases lead to dementia and eventually death, as misfolded prion proteins spread through the brain, killing neurons.
“There is a lot of importance to understanding prion diseases even though they are relatively rare,” says Encalada, who is the Arlene and Arnold Goldstein Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine. “We’re very excited that this grant will allow us the opportunity to build off our previous work to not only lead to treatments for prion diseases, but to a better understanding of other neurodegenerative diseases that progress through the brain in similar ways.”
Local interior designers seek donations to furnish
homes for people emerging from homelessness
The local chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers, San Diego (ASID), is partnering with Humble Design San Diego to design and furnish a home for a family emerging from homelessness and is asking for the public’s help.
“We are soliciting new and gently used home décor; bedding, kitchen and bath accessories; small furniture in good condition; books, lamps, curtains and rods; TVs with stands and remotes; and kitchen trash bins. We will use these donations to create a dignified, cozy home that will help put this family on a path toward long-term stability,” said Kirsten Recce, committee co-chair.
Items can be dropped off now through July 10 at three local retailers that are members of ASID:
• Patio Productions, 2161 Hancock St., San Diego, will accept donations from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
• Black Whale Home, 1092 N El Camino Real, Suite C, Encinitas, will accept donations from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
• Berger Hardware, 3972 30th St., San Diego, will accept donations from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Taylor Guitar names new president and CEO
Legendary guitar manufacturer Taylor Guitars has named Andy Powers as its new president and CEO. After last year’s shift to 100 percent employee ownership, Powers aims to preserve the culture of creativity and guitar innovation that has fueled Taylor’s growth and success.
2020 VOTER GUIDE
Just two years ago, you and 17.7 million of your civically-minded neighbors helped decide who ought to become the next president, who should sit in the Legislature and congressional delegation and how the state should handle issues such as property taxes, criminal justice and (for some reason) dialysis clinics.
Then last year, you were called back to the ballot box: Gov. Gavin Newsom, the guy most of you voted to hire in 2018, was up for a snap job performance review, also known as a recall election. (He passed).
Now, it’s the 2022 election, and hiring season is in full swing.
Not only will you be asked to pick a governor, yet again, California needs to hire its top lawyer, an insurance regulator, an elections administrator, a school supervisor, someone to invest its money, someone to keep tabs on its money and even a back-up governor.
As with the rest of the labor market, there’s also an historic glut of openings to fill in the California Legislature and in Congress. Throw in the two decisions for one U.S. Senate seat (we’ll explain) and four for the Board of Equalization (whatever that is) — and you have your work cut out for you.
Our 2022 California voter guide is here to help. Check back on June 7 and after to see who you picked.
Sharp HealthCare to launch $2 billion,
10-year building program
Sharp HealthCare has launched a decade-long, $2 billion investment in its medical facilties throughout the region to expand its emergency and trauma capacity. The plan envisions upgrades at most of the health system’s locations, including a neuroscience center at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, emergency department and intensive care upgrades at Sharp Coronado Hospital, and an intensive care unit at Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital.
Pleno raises $15 million in seed funding
Just four years after its founder sold Edico Genome to Illumina for $100 million, biotech startup Pleno has raised $15 million in seed funding. The company leverages signal processing techniques from the telecom industry to deliver biological information — such as DNA, RNA, methylation, and proteomic markers — for a broad array of applications including clinical testing and biomedical research.
San Diego near top in office-to-lab conversions
San Diego is the second busiest region in the country when it comes to converting traditional office space to life science labs, according to a report by the commercial real estate brokerage CBRE. The busiest region is Boston.
At the end of the first quarter of 2022, 1.6 billion square feet of office-to-lab construction was under way, according to CBRE.
By comparison, Boston had 3.3 million square feet under construction.
UC San Diego to open large-scale research hub on homelessness
UC San Diego will open a data hub focused exclusively on homelessness, intended to serve as a nonpartisan hub for research, education, policy and action on homelessness. The Homelessness Hub at UC San Diego will be under the umbrella of the university’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Philanthropist couples Phyllis and Dan Epstein and Hanna and Mark Gleiberman donated $1 million each to the university to establish the hub.
Last year, the Regional Task Force on Homelessness estimated that the number of first-time homeless people in the county grew from 2,326 in 2019 to 4,152 in 2020, a 79 percent increase.
“Homelessness has remained a long-term problem in San Diego and we should turn to the best researchers we have to identify thoughtful solutions,” Dan Epstein said. “The University of California will play a constructive role in that regard.”
