Daily Business Report-Nov. 9, 2015

The building at 4224 Campus Point Court in UTC is part of a four-building development project for the biotech industry.

 Vacant UTC Buildings to be Converted

Into Large Campus for Biotech Industry

Financing has been arranged for the conversion of a vacant, four-building complex in University Towne Center into a state-of-the-art lab campus for the biotech industry.

Genesis at Campus Point is to be developed by Phase 3 Real Estate Partners.

It consists of four-story and two-story office buildings, an amenities building and a seven-story office building with floor to ceiling windows.

Once converted, the buildings will feature multiple conference rooms, an on-site café with indoor and outdoor seating, a full-service fitness center, large balconies and a combination of covered and surface parking.

Located at 4224, 4242 and 4244 Campus Point Court and 10210 Campus Point Drive, Genesis at Campus Point is located near the convergence of Interstates 5 and 805 in UTC, a major San Diego life science cluster that benefits from area research institutions and co-tenants, including UC San Diego, Scripps medical campus, Illumina, Eli Lilly and Celgene.

Holiday Fenoglio Fowler LP arranged $96.4 million in financing for the conversion.

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General Atomics Expands Presence

in Middle East and North Africa 

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. has opened an office in Abu Dhabi to support its Middle East and North African (MENA) customers. It said it also will support the United Arab Emirates, the first customer of the Predator RPA series outside of the U.S. and NATO countries.

“GA-ASI has tremendous capabilities to offer MENA countries, and our office in Abu Dhabi supports the goal of expanding our presence in these regions while strengthening our customer relationships,” said Frank W. Pace, president of Aircraft Systems. “We intend to support these markets with complete RPA systems and full-service sustainment for many years to come and have selected a team with an established track record for generating results to energize our business development efforts in these territories.”

GA-ASI’s Abu Dhabi office was opened to demonstrate the company’s commitment to supporting the MENA regions’ growing defense and aerospace requirements. The office’s objective is to implement a business model allowing the company to grow and shape its customer market, pursuing new opportunities within the MENA countries.

With an endurance of over 35 hours and the ability to ascend up to 25,000 feet, Predator XP is designed with state-of-the-art technologies, including an automatic takeoff and landing capability, redundant flight control surfaces, enhanced avionics, triple-redundant flight control computers, a high-definition Electro-optical Infrared camera sensor, and a wide-area search radar system for both overland and maritime surveillance.

Predator XP is General Atomics’ newest aircraft design and has completed over 90 flight tests since its first flight in June 2014. It is now in production.

ViaSat Recognized as Finalist

In Fierce Innovation Awards

Carlsbad-based ViaSat Inc. has been selected as a finalist in this year’s Fierce Innovation Awards: Energy Edition, a utility-reviewed awards program from the publishers of FierceEnergy and Smart Grid News. ViaSat was recognized as a finalist in the Technologies/Cybersecurity category.

The global broadband services and technology company was selected for its innovative project known as Cyber intrusion Auto response and Policy Management System, which is part of a U.S. Department of Energy grant study. The focus of the project is to detect cyber-attacks across distributed networks and enable utilities to automatically respond to threats as predetermined by their cybersecurity policies.

“We worked with two leading U.S. energy companies and successfully applied policy-based automated responses to improve real-time protection of energy transmission and distribution networks from cyber-attacks,” said Jerry Goodwin, ViaSat’s chief operating officer of its Government Systems Division. Being recognized as a finalist in the Fierce Innovation Award–Energy Edition is an honor and a testament to the cybersecurity work we are doing to make our nation’s smart grid more resilient and secure.”

General Atomics Begins Construction

Of RPA Training Facility in North Dakota

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. has started construction on its new, five-and-a-half acre Remotely Piloted Aircraft training academy at Grand Sky Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) business and aviation park in Grand Forks, N.D.

The mission of the academy, according to General Atomics, is to provide safe, effective, and cutting-edge flight training for aircrew operating the company’s aircraft. As an additional benefit, the Training Academy will potentially serve to augment USAF Training Programs as well. Training for General Atomics aircrew begins early next year, followed by international customer training shortly thereafter. The company signed a 10-year lease for the facility.

Operating year-round and generating new jobs in North Dakota, the Academy will offer multiple courses and provide training for dozens of students at a time.

Since the early 1990s, General Atomics has used its Gray Butte and El Mirage Flight Operations Facilities in Palmdale and Adelanto, Calif., to train hundreds of company and customer aircrew. The North Dakota site provides an additional training resource for both General Atomics aircrews and international customers who are seeking to grow their aircrew capacity beyond what current training programs can provide.

General Atomics’ Grand Sky facility is located with the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which also serves as the base of operations for U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Customs and Border Protection Predator B aircraft and North Dakota Air National Guard MQ-1 Predator A aircraft.

Hughes Marino Ranked on Entrepreneur’s List

Hughes Marino has been ranked on Entrepreneur’s Top Company Cultures list, a comprehensive ranking of U.S.-based businesses exhibiting high-performance cultures created in partnership with culture management software and service provider CultureIQ. The Top Company Cultures list ranked Hughes Marino as No. 2 in the nation in the Small Company category. Hughes Marino is recognized for creating an exceptional culture that drives employee engagement, exceeds employee expectations and directly impacts company success.

“I am honored and actually amazed by this result, which is a testament to the incredible Hughes Marino team, and the intentional effort we have made over the years to nurture our very special company culture. Our emphasis on fun, family, and building strong relationships comes straight from our core values, which are the root of our success as a company,” says Shay Hughes, Hughes Marino COO and co-owner.

According to Ray Hennessey, editorial director of Entrepreneur.com, “Creating an entrepreneurial culture is a key priority for business leaders, yet no one until now has really assessed the role culture plays in success. This ranking celebrates the dedication that all teams, from entry-level to the C-suite, have in ensuring they are creating vibrant, healthy and sustainable work environments. That’s good for employees, investors and customers.”

To view Hughes Marinoin the full ranking, visit entrepreneur.com/TopCultures.