Daily Business Report-June 3, 2016
Aerial view of the Rancho Santa Fe property to be developed into luxury apartments.
Luxury Rental Suites Planned
For Rancho Santa Fe Property
Newport Pacific Inc. has selected Davidson Builders as the general contractor for 54 luxury rental suites at Palma de la Reina, a mixed-use complex planned for in Rancho Santa Fe.
The project, scheduled for completion at the end of November, will be located at the entrance to Whispering Palms off Via de la Valle. The address is 5525 Cancha de Golf.
Luxury suites at Palma de la Reina range from approximately 1,000 to 1,100 square feet and offer two bedrooms and two baths plus covered parking. Architecture by Jon Ebert — the original designer of Whispering Palms — features an Italian Renaissance styling with a light art deco color palette, similar to the adjoining retail and office buildings. A common area features a pool, spa and poolhouse.
“I consider these more than apartments, these are homes,” said Richard Cavanaugh, president and CEO of Newport Pacific. “Our priority was to open up the interiors and maximize natural light through creative placement of windows, glass block and skylights. Variation in landscaping, color and exterior details has helped us achieve a heightened sense of privacy and individuality throughout the complex.”
Water conserving landscaping by David Reed Landscape Architects includes many of the signature palms familiar in Whispering Palms and the surrounding community.
The new rental community adjoins Palma de la Reina’s 31,410-square-foot commercial complex. The retail building is nearing completion and will feature local merchants including Gyrotonic Rancho Santa Fe, Salon Draven, Whispering Palms Cleaners, and My Brighter Side, a store that offers products for female cancer patients.
The commercial office complex is also on schedule for a summer opening.
Palma de la Reina is the final element in the Whispering Palms master plan, which was created by Newport Pacific in 1962.
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Skaggs Family Gives $2 Million for
New TSRI Graduate Program Endowment
The Skaggs family has given a new $2 million gift to support exceptional students in The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) graduate program.
“This new endowment, which brings the family’s total gifts to TSRI to approximately $131 million, will help us continue to recruit the best students for advanced training at the intersection of biology and chemistry,” said Peter Schultz, institute CEO. “In so doing, the gift also benefits our faculty, whose research programs will be enhanced by the efforts of these outstanding fellows.”
The new gift was made through the Skaggs family’s foundation, The ALSAM Foundation.
Beginning this fall, one exceptional member of the entering class will be selected by the TSRI admissions committee to be designated as a Skaggs Fellow.
The Skaggs Fellow’s first-year stipend will be paid from the new endowment funds. In addition, in subsequent years of study, the student will receive a research supplement of up to $5,000.
Suja Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Click here for all the information you will need for the Suja Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and ½ Marathon on Sunday, June 5.
General Atomics and Customs Agency Test
Anti-Collision Radar Aboard Unmanned Aircraft
General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems unit and the Customs and Border Protection agency have tested a detect-and-avoid system that includes the company’s Due Regard Radar anti-collision system onboard CBP’s Guardian unmanned aircraft system.
The company said Wednesday the DAA system also features a Honeywell traffic alert and collision avoidance tool and sensor tracker as it works to provide air traffic imagery for remotely piloted aircraft GA says is similar to a manned aircraft’s cockpit view.
David Alexander, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems president of aircraft systems, said the test with CBP marks the first integration and evaluation of DRR on an operational UAS.
Alexander added CBP’s use of DAA system in domestic and international airspace will build on the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA‘s efforts to introduce RPA into the National Airspace System for civilian aircraft.
The test involved scenarios that flew aircraft such as Cessna C-210 and UH-60 Black Hawk close to Guardian as DAA worked to provide alerts and guidance to the pilot’s traffic display and support separation between the UAS and the “intruder” aircraft, GA noted.
CBP operates nine GA-ASI-built Predator B and Guardian aircraft.
American Gut Project Expands to Asia
University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers are expanding the American Gut Project into Asia. The goal of American Gut, the world’s largest crowdfunded citizen science project, is to sequence as many human microbiomes — the unique collection of bacteria and other microbes that live in and on us — as possible.
American Gut Project participants are “citizen scientists.” They learn how many of which types of bacteria inhabit their bodies, and in doing so also contribute valuable data to researchers around the world who want to know how microbiomes influence human and environmental health.
So far, American Gut Project results have reported that, in general, a healthy gut microbiome is one with a diverse number of bacterial species in it.
Joe Schloss Way Dedication
North Park Little League officials and other admirers of the late Joe Schloss will gather at Morley Field on Saturday for the dedication of a road sign named in his honor — Joe Schloss Way.
The Little League petitioned the city to erect the sign, located at an access road to Morley Field, in recognition of Schloss’s service to youth baseball and the community. Schloss died in November at age 88.
“Joe was one of the most respected and recognizable residents in the North Park area, influencing generations of young men and women on skill, sportsmanship and good character,” said the North Park Little League in its request to rename the street. “The naming of the street will not only honor Joe, it will provide a community service by adding a familiar name to the road. When people say turn left on Joe Schloss Way to find the baseball and soccer fields, drivers will see the sign.”
Schloss, a Navy veteran who served in the Pacific during World War II, coached his first team in 1956, which made 2015 his 60th season. He owned and operated A&B Sporting Goods in North Park for several years.
Saturday’s dedication is at 10:30 a.m. (Morley Field, 2221 Morley Field Drive).
Port Seeks Public Comment on Proposals
To Develop Embarcadero Waterfront Area
The Port of San Diego invites the public to view proposals for the Central Embarcadero Waterfront Development Opportunity during a June 13 and 14 open house from 3 to 7 p.m. at the San Diego Convention Center (Room 2).
The Waterfront Development Opportunity is a prime site of approximately 70 acres of land and water situated in the Port’s Central Embarcadero area between Downtown San Diego and the San Diego Bayfront. The area includes Seaport Village, Chesapeake Fish, and surrounding areas between the Hyatt and the USS Midway Museum. The Headquarters and The Fish Market Restaurant are within the boundary but excluded from the proposal process because there are long-term leases on those properties.
In February 2016, the Port issued a Request for Proposals for developing this area; the deadline to respond was May 2. Six proposals will be on display at the open house, and development teams will be on hand to answer questions. The goal of these events is to provide multiple opportunities for public comments ahead of a decision by the Board of Port Commissioners on selecting a proposal.
Staff expects to present the Central Embarcadero proposals to port commissioners for consideration on July 13.
California Supreme Court Reverses
Conviction of William Richards
SD California Western School of Law’s California Innocence Project Behind it
In a unanimous 7-0 decision, the California Supreme Court published an opinion on Thursday reversing the conviction of William Richards, who has served more than two decades for a crime he did not commit. The decision came down after lawyers at the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law presented new DNA evidence showing another person’s DNA on the murder weapon and under the victim’s fingernails, and after the key prosecution witness recanted his expert testimony implicating Richards.
The California Innocence Project at the California School of Law, has been working on Richards’s case since the organization’s inception in 1999, and the Richards case was one of the first they reviewed.
In 2001, the California Innocence Project requested DNA testing on items of evidence that were never tested at the time of trial. Those DNA test results revealed an unknown male DNA profile on the murder weapon and hair under the victim’s fingernails. Richards’s case took another turn after the star prosecution witness in the case recanted his expert testimony that Richards had to have committed the crime because his dentition matched a bite mark found on the victim’s body. The prosecution’s expert stated in 2007 that he never should have testified Richards was a match, and that in his professional opinion, based on further review and recent technological advancements in forensic sciences, not only was the mark not left by Richards, it may not have been a bite mark all along.
In 2009, San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Brian McCarville reversed Bill’s conviction, finding the evidence completely undermined the prosecution’s case and pointed unerringly to innocence. Unfortunately, the Court of Appeal reversed Judge McCarville’s decision shortly thereafter. In 2012, in what California Lawyer Magazine called “the worst decision of the year,” the California Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision, finding that even though the expert recanted his testimony, an expert’s opinion could never be true or false, and thus Richards was not entitled to a reversal of his conviction. Two years later, the California Innocence Project worked to change the law to allow experts to recant their testimony. In January of 2015, the California Innocence Project filed another petition to free Bill and finally got his conviction reversed with the California Supreme Court decision.
In reversing the conviction, the California Supreme Court noted that “the case against petitioner [at trial] was entirely based on circumstantial evidence, and much of that evidence was heavily contested” by the defense at trial. “[W]ith the exception of the bite mark evidence, the defense had a substantial response to much of the prosecution‘s evidence against petitioner,” said Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye, writing for the majority. The court further noted that the bite mark evidence had been “clearly repudiated” and that “new technological advances undermined” the bite mark evidence presented at trial. Because the bite mark evidence played such a central issue in the case, the court concluded the conviction could not stand.
“It has taken far too long but today, the highest court in California has now acknowledged that William Richards’ conviction must be thrown own because it was based on false evidence,” said Jan Stiglitz, professor at California Western School of Law and former co-director of the California Innocence Project. “Given that we have also documented the existence of DNA not belonging to Richards on both the murder weapon and under the victim’s fingernail, we hope that the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office will also recognize that it prosecuted the wrong person and will not seek to retry Richards for a crime he did not commit.”
The resolution of the case came about after the California Innocence Project secured federal funding through the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to look into and litigate cases involving DNA. DNA has become the gold standard for forensic evidence and this funding has allowed the California Innocence Project to bring innocence cases like Richards to light.
San Diego County Fair Opens Today
By City News Service
The 2016 San Diego County Fair, whose theme is “Mad About the Fair,” opens this afternoon.
The theme takes the Lewis Carroll classic “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” and mixes in some steampunk and cosplay, organizers said. A Mad DJ Party is scheduled in the theme exhibit at 7 p.m.
An opening ceremony for the fair is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the O’Brien Gate, and the public will be let in beginning at 4 p.m. Switchfoot will perform on the Grandstand Stage beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The fair will run 26 days through July 4. It will be closed Mondays — except for closing day — and the first two Tuesdays. General admission is $16, while a $26 pass allows admission each day.
Organizers urge the public to use public transit. A valid North County Transit District, Amtrak or Compass pass allows for a free shuttle ride from the Solana Beach train station.
United Way Picks Rabbi, Civic
Leader Laurie Coskey as CEO
By City News Service
The United Way of San Diego County on Thursday named Rabbi Laurie Coskey, a longtime community leader, as its president and CEO.
For the past 15 years, Coskey has been executive director of the Interfaith Center for Worker Justice, a San Diego nonprofit that works on behalf of low-income families.
“Our search committee conducted an extensive nationwide search to find the best candidate to serve the community,” said Jacqueline Parks, who chairs the local United Way’s Board of Directors.
“Laurie wrote her doctoral dissertation on United Way, and has a firm understanding of our role in the community and strategic vision,” Parks said. “She will be the leader we need as we unite the community, helping every child to thrive.”
Coskey has also served on the board of the San Diego Convention Center Corp.
“I look forward to working collaboratively with United Way’s board, staff and partners in fulfilling its transformative vision and mission,” Coskey said. “I have always followed the progress of United Way and admired its role as one of the preeminent organizations supporting the well-being of local families and children.”
She also chairs the San Diego Community College District’s Trustee Advisory Council and champions local progressive political causes.
Personnel Announcements
David Gao Joins Hecht Solberg Law Firm
Hecht Solberg Robinson Goldberg & Bagley LLP has named David M. Gao an associate with the firm. The law firm which provides counsel on all real estate matters, including business and finance transactions; land use, planning and entitlements; common interest developments; and litigation and risk management.
Gao was a summer associate with the firm in 2014. He interned with a law firm in Beijing and, as a student at UCLA Law, visited villages in eastern Congo to help diminish the negative consequences of mass rape through the Sanela Diana Jenkins Clinic on Gender Violence.
Gao graduated from the UCLA School of Law, where he was co-editor in chief of the UCLA Asian Pacific American Law Journal, which focuses on the legal, social and political issues affecting Asian Pacific American communities. He was an extern for Judge Roger Benitez, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California. He also volunteered with the El Centro Legal Asian Americans Advancing Justice Citizenship Clinic.
