Daily Business Report: Friday, July 22, 2022
Amazon’s custom electric delivery vehicles
hitting the road in San Diego and across U.S.
Customers in San Diego and across the U.S. will begin to see custom electric delivery vehicles from Rivian delivering their Amazon packages, with the electric vehicles hitting the road Thursday in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Nashville, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, and St. Louis, among other cities. This rollout is just the beginning of what is expected to be thousands of Amazon’s custom electric delivery vehicles in more than 100 cities by the end of this year—and 100,000 across the U.S. by 2030.
The vehicles are designed from the ground-up with safety, sustainability, and comfort in mind, and have been thoroughly tested by drivers across the country. They are the product of Amazon’s partnership with Rivian, which the companies announced in 2019 when Amazon co-founded, and became the first signatory of The Climate Pledge—a commitment to reach net-zero carbon across all operations by 2040. As part of the Pledge, Amazon is creating a more sustainable delivery fleet, and its work with Rivian is an important part of decarbonizing its last mile logistics as well as accelerating innovation that can help others reach net-zero carbon. With its commitment to have all 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2030, Amazon will save millions of metric tons of carbon per year.
Amazon has been testing deliveries with Rivian preproduction vehicles since 2021, delivering over 430,000 packages and accumulating over 90,000 miles. This significant testing has allowed Rivian to continuously improve the vehicle’s performance, safety and durability in various climates and geographies as well as its state-of-the-art features to ensure driver satisfaction, and overall functionality.
Top Photo: Amazon’s custom electric delivery vehicles from Rivian.
Just how much money does Comic-Con make for San Diego?
The city’s annual comic convention pumps millions of dollars into San Diego’s economy each year, but it could all vanish in 2025.
As it enters its 53rd year in San Diego, Comic-Con International has evolved from a small gathering of comic book and science fiction enthusiasts gathered in the basement of the U.S. Grant Hotel in 1970 to a mega-event that has outgrown the 2.6 million-square-foot San Diego Convention Center. As the city’s largest annual convention, the event brings tens of thousands of people to downtown San Diego while they eat, sleep, attend events and move throughout the metropolitan area.
Miro Copic, marketing lecturer and branding expert at the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University discussed how attendees will spend their money and what it means to the city.
Can you talk a little about the economic impact Comic-Con International has on the San Diego area?
Comic-Con is the premier event in San Diego’s year. This is one event that puts San Diego on the global map. Before the pandemic, Comic-Con attracted over 135,000 registered fans from all over the world, along with over 2,500 members of the media from more than 30 countries. The impact to the local San Diego economy is over $165 million in overall spending with over $90 million in direct attendee spending. This means that the average attendee spends nearly $700 when they are here. The City of San Diego will collect over $3.2 million in hotel and sales tax revenue, so this is a big boon to the city given that Comic-Con is bigger than the next four to five conventions combined.
IHP Capital Partners and KB Home break ground on
new 20-acre mixed use development in Carlsbad
IHP Capital Partners, a leading real estate investment firm, and KB Home, one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., announced the acquisition and groundbreaking of Marja Acres, a new 20-acre, mixed-use community in Carlsbad that will include 248 three-story townhomes, 10,000 square feet of commercial space and 46 affordable apartments for adults 55 years of age and over.
Located on the site of a former nursery, the infill community will pay homage to the property’s agricultural history through its name and urban farm aesthetic and provide a variety of modern new living options for multiple generations of Carlsbad residents, along with a daycare, 2,000 square feet of restaurant space, parks, community center and other on-site amenities.
IHP and KB Home are developing the Marja Acres project together, completing the site’s infrastructure and constructing the 248 townhomes. Upon the overall community’s final map approval, the 46 affordable apartments will be conveyed to and completed by USA Properties. Site grading for the townhomes is currently underway. Model home construction is planned to start in the fourth quarter of this year, with home sales anticipated to open in 2023. Home pricing will be competitive with the surrounding existing for-sale housing and be released at a later date.
The Clotfelter Family relinquishes ownership
of historic Rancho Santa Fe property
A multi-tenant property in Rancho Santa Fe that was owned by The Clotfelter Family (dba Paseo Delicias LLC) has been sold to Nature’s Fusion Glow LLC. The 4,674-square-foot property is located at 6012 Paseo Delicias in the heart of the Village of Rancho Santa Fe and consists of office, retail and residential uses.
This was the first time the property was ever made available for sale since the family has owned and built it in the mid 1940s. The multi-tenant asset is fully leased to a diverse tenant mix that includes Willis Allen Company, a residential real estate firm.
The Clotfelter’s, Reg and Connie, moved to Rancho Santa Fe in 1931 and are one of the original families in the area who have continuously lived in “The Ranch.” In the mid 1940s, Reg started his own real estate business and purchased the land on which, in the late 1940s, he built and occupied half of the street frontage of the Paseo Delicias building. Tom Clotfelter took over the real estate business in the early 1990s and his son Cutter Clotfelter has continued as a real estate broker working for the Willis Allen Company in the building.
“This property is sewn into the history of Rancho Santa Fe and signifies a true irreplaceable asset along Paseo Delicias – the main street in The Village,” said Peter Curry, managing director of Cushman & Wakefield, which arranged the sale. “This sale allows the new owner to be a part of a generational asset, while writing the next chapter in Rancho Santa Fe’s storied history.”
Peter Curry, Kevin Cuff and Brooks Campbell with Cushman & Wakefield represented both parties in the sale.
General Atomics and Savannah River National
Lab team up on fusion pilot plant
General Atomics and the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) are joining forces to address a critical challenge to economic fusion energy as part of a public-private partnership funded by the Department of Energy (DOE).
The partnership will combine General Atomics’ experience in fusion energy research with SRNL’s expertise in processing and storing tritium, one of the fuel gases used in fusion. Future fusion power plants will need safe, reliable systems for tritium handling, making the GA-SRNL project a key milestone on the road to fusion-generated electricity.
Safe, clean, and sustainable, fusion energy has the potential to replace current fossil plants and provide always-available power that can support intermittent renewable generation, without producing long-lived radioactive waste. Fusion plants will use two forms of hydrogen gas for fuel: deuterium, which can be extracted from seawater, and tritium, which is created by lithium in the interior walls of the fusion machine.
Tritium is a weakly radioactive form of hydrogen that naturally decays into safer elements after only a couple of decades. The processing of large quantities of tritium is still the subject of active research to determine the best approach in a prototype fusion power plant.
Del Mar Racetrack kicks off summer season today
The famous seaside track will welcome fans back to Del Mar Racetrack for its summer season with Opening Day celebrations today, and will run through Sept. 11. For the first time since 2019, Del Mar’s Grandstand will also operate at full capacity throughout the season.
Opening Day – Today marks the start of an exhilarating season featuring the best in racing, fashion, food, and culture. Attracting thousands of locals and visitors alike, the West Coast tradition will feature fan-favorite events like the Hats Contest (11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.), the return of the Opening Day Party, and the exclusive After Pony Party. Opening Day will have limited attendance to enhance the fan experience and tickets are now sold out, but fans can purchase tickets to the races on Saturday and Sunday.
Shield AI’a V-BAT selected for DoD’s APFIT pilot program
Shield AI, a fast-growing defense technology company building AI pilots for aircraft, announced its inclusion in the first set of projects selected to receive funding for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s (OUSD (R&E)) pilot program to Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies, also known as APFIT. Shield AI’s APFIT project involves the initial procurement of V-BAT unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) — semi-autonomous, long-loiter, vertical takeoff, and landing-capable UASs with modular payload capability — that can provide resilient data transport and locate and provide weapon quality targeting information as part of the Joint Sensing Grid to JADC2.
According to the DoD’s official release, the purpose of the APFIT pilot program is to expeditiously transition technologies and get them in the warfighters’ hands. The benefits of this pilot will be to deliver war-winning capabilities to the warfighter.
Altium LLC launches the Spectra suite
of electronics industry data intelligence
Getting products to market today has become a challenging endeavor as supply chain channels grapple with constant disruptions and routine delays. That’s why Nexar, a business unit of San Diego-based Altium LLC, launched the Spectra suite of electronics industry data intelligence. These offerings help businesses better anticipate electronic component shortages, mitigate risks, and make smarter procurement decisions. Spectra’s insights help businesses to not only respond to current market conditions but also get products to market ahead of the competition.
Nexar’s unique industry position provides a broad view of the electronics market. The Electronic Design to Delivery Index (EDDI) is among Spectra’s inaugural tools. A free monthly report, EDDI helps businesses identify trends by bringing together historical data for millions of electronic components—two years’ worth of insights—delivering current global stock availability and how that compares to a pre-pandemic baseline of January 2020.
Upper Deck launches Collect Forever, creating
one-stop direct-to-consumer collectables platform
Upper Deck, a global sports and entertainment trading card, memorabilia, and collectibles company, has revolutionized the industry with the launch of Collect Forever, creating the largest direct-to-consumer collectibles distribution platform, allowing for the purchase, storage, and trading of every type of collectible. The announcement was made at Comic-Con by President Jason Masherah, who added that initial products to be available for purchase will include pre-ordered collectibles from Marvel, DC Comics, and Funko POP.
“We are excited to officially launch Collect Forever because together with e-Pack it creates the largest online direct to consumer shopping platforms for cards, comics and collectibles,” said Masherah. “There is a high demand for and interest in comics, trading cards, and other collectibles. Our customers, collectors and the community at large are looking for easy access to unique products as well as an exciting pack opening experience.”
Report: Renting is more affordable
than buying a starter home
New data illustrates how higher mortgage rates are increasingly tipping the housing affordability scale in favor of renting over first-time buying. Nationally, the gap between monthly starter homeownership costs and rents widened by 25.5 percentage points (+$483) from January to June, according to the Realtor.com Monthly Rental Report released Thursday. Additionally, more than three-quarters of the 50 largest U.S. metros favored renting in June, compared to just under half of these markets in January.
“With rents and for-sale home prices both hitting record-highs in June, the rising cost of financing a home purchase stands out as the clear driver of rental affordability relative to typical starter homeownership costs. In fact, our analysis shows that if not for higher mortgage rates, the rent versus first-time buying gap would have shrunk in the first half of this year, as rents grew more quickly than starter home prices,” said Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale.
