Your Daily Business Report: Monday, Sept. 26, 2022
First phase construction begins for
the 200-acre Riverwalk San Diego project
New community will have 930 homes and a retail segment
Transforming the Riverwalk golf course in western Mission Valley into a live-work-play transit-oriented neighborhood has begun with the start of construction of the first phase of the project last week.
Phase one of Riverwalk San Diego will include 930 for-rent homes in a series of five buildings along Friars Road, as well as 75,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail space surrounding a central green that will serve as a gathering space for the new residents and surrounding neighbors.
Hines, a global real estate investment, development, and property manager, in partnership with USAA Real Estate, is developing the 200-acre project.
“We brought together development, design, building and environmental experts, as well as local leaders to craft the Riverwalk vision,” said Eric Hepfer, managing director, Hines. “Hines is proud to be a part of bringing the community’s vision to life in Mission Valley.”
The Riverwalk residences will be for rent and will range from studios to townhomes. The retail space will be anchored by a grocery store and complemented by restaurants, bars, fitness studios and other stores and services.
“Riverwalk is truly a posterchild for smart growth,” said Mayor Todd Gloria.
The completion and grand opening of Riverwalk San Diego’s phase one is slated for early 2025.
Top Photo: Rendering of the residential portion of Riverwalk San Diego. Below, rendering of the retail segment.
Mayor Todd Gloria, WTCSD lead Netherlands trade mission
To foster vital global economic partnerships, Mayor Todd Gloria and World Trade Center San Diego, an affiliate of San Diego Regional EDC, are leading a trade delegation to the Netherlands. During the September trade mission, business and civic leaders will promote San Diego’s key industries, establish and strengthen business relationships, and explore best practices in urban mobility, climate action and sustainability, and technology and science innovation.
“San Diego is an undeniable force in the global marketplace, and we must seize opportunities to tell our story and maximize investment from partners around the world,” said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. “As we work to address our region’s biggest challenges—affordability, urban mobility, climate change, and more—I’m proud to join World Trade Center San Diego in the Netherlands to learn from like thriving, global cities.”
Nucleus Biologics celebrates facility expansion with ribbon cutting ceremony. From left to right: David Sheehan, founder and CEO of Nucleus Biologics; Joe Panetta, president and CEO of Biocom California; and Nikia Clarke, senior vice president of San Diego Regional EDC. (Photo: Business Wire)
Nucleus Biologics unveils expanded facility in San Diego
San Diego-based Nucleus Biologics, a provider of small lot custom cell culture media, celebrated the opening of its newest building on their San Diego campus and the unveiling of additional state-of-the-art cleanrooms and infrastructure at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 22.
Founded in 2016, Nucleus Biologics is expanding its San Diego footprint to support the rapidly growing life sciences industry in the region and beyond. The new 19,884-square-foot facility includes four liquid and two powder cleanrooms built to ISO 7 specifications for cell media manufacturing, increasing total manufacturing capacity to 2.5 million liters a year. In addition, the new facility will have a state-of-the-art WFI spec water system with ozone sanitization and real-time quality monitoring.
“This is an exciting time for Nucleus Biologics. We have seen rapid growth in both the cell and gene therapy industry and our business and are expanding manufacturing and cleanroom capacity to support our therapy customers to speed the time from discovery to cure,” said David Sheehan, Founder and CEO of Nucleus Biologics. “We are excited to share this achievement with the San Diego business community, local leaders, and our biotech and pharma customers.”
Cal State says it can’t afford a staff
wage hike even if governor OKs it
CalMatters
A last-minute bill that sailed through the Legislature may leave Cal State University on the hook for nearly $900 million in new costs over the next decade — possibly forcing it to raise tuition for only the second time in more than a decade.
That “may” assumes lawmakers allot no new increases in university funding. Gov. Gavin Newsom has actually proposed giving the system more than a billion dollars in extra state support through spring of 2027, but there’s no guarantee that will happen. What would be guaranteed by this bill is the extra expense.
Now Newsom is faced with a choice: sign Senate Bill 410 that would raise the wages of Cal State’s relatively underpaid non-academic staff and ensure the system receives its promised infusion of state cash, or veto it, angering 30,000 unionized employees in a state where labor groups have considerable political sway.
New legislation give undocumented
Californians ability to get state ID
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed legislation that will allow undocumented Californians to obtain a state ID.
“California is expanding opportunity for everyone, regardless of immigration status,” said Newsom. “We’re a state of refuge – a majority-minority state, where 27 percent of us are immigrants. That’s why I’m proud to announce the signing of today’s bills to further support our immigrant community, which makes our state stronger every single day.”
What it means:
• Undocumented Californians will be able to obtain a state ID, a critical step for inclusion and meaningful participation in communities and economy.
• Street vendors can more easily get local health permits.
• Immigrant students will have improved access to in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.
• Provides low-income Californians, regardless of immigration status, eligibility for legal assistance in civil matters.
San Diego International Film Festival
to present documentary on human trafficking
The San Diego International Film Festival has programmed the film, “Exit—A Journey Out of the Heart of Human Trafficking “— for its Oct. 20 Night of the Starts Tribute, to raise awareness of the costs of human trafficking.
The documentary tells the true story of three women who were looking for a way out of their extreme poverty and found themselves at the heart of human trafficking networks. San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan will introduce the film at the festival.
The film festival also will honor Brook Parker-Bello with the Humanitarian Award. The author, actress, techie, and survivor champion against human trafficking is the founding CEO of More Too Life Inc., and a new startup called Eval. The award is given to individuals who advocate for humanitarian causes and leverage their influence to make a difference in the world. Past awardees include Geena Davi, Kweku Mandela, Mariel Hemingway and Lindsay Wagner.
The San Diego International Film Festival is partnering with Authentic ID and All 4 Humanity Alliance in their efforts to continue to shine a light on the issue of human trafficking.
PSAR Realtors group opens PSAR Event Center
The Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors (PSAR) will host a grand opening, ribbon-cutting ceremony and volunteer-recognition celebration for its new PSAR Event Center celebration starting at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, at the PSAR East County Service Center, 1150 Broadway, El Cajon.
A 3,200-square-foot meeting room, now called the PSAR Event Center, is located on the first floor of a two-story commercial building the realtors group has owned since 1980, when the association was called the East San Diego County Association of Realtors. Officials said the opening of the PSAR Event Center marks a new chapter in PSAR’s long tradition of community service and in shaping the history, growth and development of greater San Diego County. PSAR was founded in 1928.
The PSAR Event Center, with 180-person capacity, was recently remodeled with new flooring, walls, ceiling and commercial-grade kitchen, as well as a new audio-visual system with mounted video monitors. Construction began in May and was completed in early September.
Qualcomm automotive business
booming; $30 billion pipeline
RCR Wireless
Providing its Snapdragon Digital Chassis to the automotive industry has been a major driver of Qualcomm expanding its total addressable market to $700 billion by the end of the decade. Just two months ago the company counted its automotive design win pipeline at $19 billion. This past week at an Automotive Investor Day event in New York City, the company updated that design win figure to $30 billion.
CEO Cristiano Amon contextualized Qualcomm’s automotive growth as part of a unified technology roadmap predicated on three pillars: “You need to be always connected to the cloud 100 percent of the time. You have a new architecture for computing at the edge which is about heterogeneous and efficient computing…And the ability to scale artificial intelligence at the edge.”
SD Workforce Partnership and Qualcomm
host STEM event at Hoover High School
The San Diego Workforce Partnership and Qualcomm will host an all-day event at Hoover High School on Sept. 28 to expose ninth grade students to career and educational opportunities in science, engineering, technology and math (STEM) occupations. During the event, Hoover High School freshmen will explore their personal strengths, interests, and values and learn how to apply them to careers in STEM. During the day, students will gain insight into careers and advice on how to succeed in the industry through a keynote presentation, conducting a hands-on activity that simulates work in STEM and having one-on-one discussions with professionals in the field, allowing the students to have more explorative conversations around their interests.
Hoover students largely identify with populations historically underrepresented in STEM careers; in the 2020-2021 school year, 75 percent of Hoover High School students were Hispanic, and 7 percent of students were Black.
SkySafe selected as preferred vendor for
counter-drone technology by U.S. military ally
SkySafe, a San Diego airspace security and management technology company, announced that it has once again been selected as the preferred vendor for counter-drone technology by a major U.S. military ally in Asia. This is the fifth competitive contract win in the region for SkySafe.
SkySafe has been testing and deploying counter drone capabilities to domestic and foreign military customers since 2015. SkySafe offers comprehensive defense against the threat of drones by applying advanced radio frequency (RF) technology, reverse engineering, and deep threat analysis.
UC San Diego receives $16 million NIH FIRST award
UC San Diego has been granted a five-year, $16 million award from the NIH to recruit 12 diverse, early-career research faculty in the biomedical sciences. The program works to address disproportionately low numbers of BIPOC and women researchers in the biomedical workforce by improving faculty recruitment, retention, inclusion, and success.
ImmunoScape raises $14 million for cancer-targeting tech
InnunoScape has raised $14 million to further its work toward the discovery of novel, cancer-specifi T-cell receptors that better enable targeted oncology treatments. The biotech startup, which spun out of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, now employs 10 scientists in San Diego and 43 worldwide.
U.S. patent issued for Evofem Biosciences’ contraceptive gel
Evofem Biosciences, a San Diego company, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 11,439,610, which covers the composition of matter of Phexxi (lactic acid, citric acid, potassium bitartrate). Phexxi is the first and only FDA-approved hormone-free, woman-controlled contraceptive gel that women use on demand. It works by maintaining vaginal pH in the optimal range of 3.5 to 4.5, which is inhospitable to sperm, as well as certain bacterial and viral pathogens including chlamydia and gonorrhea. Since Phexxi’s initial launch in 2020, more than 100,000 women have been prescribed Phexxi by nearly 21,000 health care providers.
Red Ribbon Bakeshop opens its fourth location in San Diego
Red Ribbon Bakeshop Inc., the Philippines-founded bakery that offers an array of sweet and savory baked goods, celebrated its 38th store in the U.S. with the grand opening of its fourth location in San Diego on Saturday. The new Red Ribbon is situated within Otay Ranch Town Center mall (2015 Birch Road), a dynamic, open-air retail destination just minutes from downtown San Diego that offers a sophisticated mix of shopping, dining, and entertainment to both residents and visitors.
Today, the international bakery brand boasts over 500 total locations and over 30 bakeshops across the U.S. with locations in California, Nevada, Washington, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, Illinois, and Florida. The Los Angeles Times has twice cited the brand’s cakes as the “Best of L.A.” and Eater also named Red Ribbon Bakeshop among the best restaurants for ube desserts in Las Vegas.
