SDBJ WEEKLY EDITION
Procopio Partner, Tax Attorney for Past 37 Years Retires
The Business of Law Column
If you’ve been a tax attorney for 40 years, and decide to take down the shingle, you deserve to be the lead item in a law column. Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP said goodbye to George L. Damoose recently.
Seacoast Commerce’s Strategy Grows Assets and Deposits
Finance Column
Good borrowers may be tougher to find, but it’s much easier if you’ve got a sizable loan production network. That appears to be the case at Seacoast Commerce Bank based in Rancho Bernardo, which operates a dozen loan production offices outside the county where it has two branches. Besides five branches in California, it also has sites in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Washington.
Warburg Pincus-Backed Sophiris Biosciences Plans $75M IPO
BIOTECH: Former Canadian Firm Developing BPH Treatment
Sophiris Biosciences Inc.’s story is one of immigration and, in a way, the pursuit of the American dream: It’s a Canadian-turned-American pharmaceutical company that’s using its newfound San Diego base to restructure and ramp up development plans for its drug that treats prostate enlargement.
Transforming the Transactions
BANKING: Branch Banking Adapts to Technology Advances
Despite a quantum shift by more consumers doing their banking via the Internet and ATMs, most banks say they have no plans to eliminate their retail branch networks.
Executive Profile: Nikki Atkins Hartung
Nikki Hartung is senior vice president and market manager for Chase Consumer and Business Banking in San Diego. She has worked for JPMorgan Chase & Co. for 19 years, after joining the company in a management development program
Local Small Business Lender Generates Opportunity and Jobs
FINANCE: The CDC Has Loaned Nearly $4B In Its 35 Years
Now in its 35th year, small business lender San Diego-based CDC Small Business Finance can take some pride in the legacy it’s created.
Institute Gives Beysters a Place of Honor for Their Support
Kudos/Giving Column
J. Robert Beyster and Betty J. Beyster will donate approximately $2.5 million to the J. Craig Venter Institute. The funds will be used to support the completion of the J. Craig Venter Institute sustainable laboratory that is currently under construction at UC San Diego.
Firm’s Small Modular Fuel Plants Can ‘Sprout Up’ Where Needed
ENERGY: Oberon’s Units Produce Fuel On-Site, Using Local Sources
A San Diego clean energy company is making strides in changing the way power plants are set up — by making them modular.
Open Space Draws Retailers on the Move
PROPERTY: Location Options Are Limited in Tight Market
Vacated San Diego County retail space often doesn’t stay empty for long, a continuing trend illustrated by cases like the recent closure of a Kmart store in Mission Valley.
Air Force Steers Away From Global Hawk
DEFENSE: Northrop Grumman’s Drone Is Big Part of Navy’s Plans
The recently released White House budget request for 2014 allocates fewer dollars to Global Hawk, Northrop Grumman’s high-flying unmanned spy plane.
Skin in the game
RESEARCH: Biotech Innovations Are Fueling Cosmeceutical Competition
A handful of San Diego companies are competing in the lucrative high-end skincare market, using a grounding in real science to produce and promote their beauty wares.
Layoff Threat for 665 Is Lifted at Nassco
DEFENSE: Signed Bill Clears Way for Some Planned Work
A changed federal budget picture means that the General Dynamics Nassco shipyard will not have to go through with 665 layoffs announced earlier this year.
Firm Wants to Change Real Estate Landscape
PROPERTY: Avison Young Brings Its Model to Local Market
Toronto-based commercial real estate services firm Avison Young is rapidly growing its own U.S. office footprint, most recently entering a competitive San Diego market already filled with several established regional and national brokerage players.
VC Firm Announces Final Close of Fund
SDBJ Insider
Terry Moore, founder and principal of local boutique venture capital firm Moore Venture Partners recently announced the final close of MVP, a $10 million fund. Moore also said he’s already closed his fifth deal from the fund, an investment in Savara Pharmaceuticals, located in Austin, Texas.
Local Craft Beer Industry Keeps Pouring It On
MANUFACTURING: Economic Impact Put at $299.5M and Growing
Things are ramping up at Societe Brewing Co. in San Diego. Opened about a year ago, the craft brewer is on track to produce about 2,400 barrels of beer this year but that will certainly rise when it installs two new tanks sometime this summer, says Doug Constantiner, chief executive officer.
Qualcomm Raises Year End Estimate
Qualcomm Inc. reported fiscal 2013 second quarter net income of $1.87 billion, down 16 percent from the like quarter last year on record revenue of $6.12 billion, up 24 percent from a year earlier.
‘Garage Laboratory’ Concept Is Experiment in Reaching Out
BIOTECH: Carlsbad Facility Plans to Open Field to Citizen Scientists
Kevin Lustig has an eye for slogans. He’s the CEO of what he calls “the Amazon.com of biotechnology,” and his latest venture is opening “the world’s largest garage laboratory.”
Demographic Trends Drive Specialty Retail and Leasing Activity
RETAIL: Hispanic Buying Power to Reach $1.3 Trillion in 2015
Specialty grocers serving the Hispanic community — such as Northgate Gonzalez Markets, Vallarta Supermarkets Inc. and El Super — have played a big role in filling some empty and underutilized retail spaces in San Diego County.
Avalon, GSK Team Up to Be Creative Force in Drug Innovation
MEDICINE: Venture Will Find and Further Promising Research
In a unique deal that will create and bankroll 10 new San Diego drug companies, La Jolla investment firm Avalon Ventures has teamed up with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc to funnel up to $495 million into new startups over the next three years.
Staffing Firms Go to Work as Employment Picture Improves
WORKFORCE: Temp Placements Are Increasing; Skilled Workers Sought
San Diego’s job market is starting to show some traction based on the latest employment report that showed the region’s jobless rate falling to 7.7 percent in March.
Technology’s Pathfinders
TECH: Qualcomm Sees Need to ‘Clear the Way’ For More Data, Devices
Qualcomm Inc. sees a torrent of data in its future — and ours. The amount of data going to mobile devices is doubling every year, said Rasmus Hellberg, senior director for technical marketing.
Having Competent IT Help Can Be a Lifesaver for Small Businesses
TECH: Needs for Assistance, Backup and Security Require Pros
Clive Harrison of San Diego-based CentrexIT says he sees the phenomenon much too often: business leaders making their information technology choices based on price alone.
Executive Profile: Wolfgang Ahrens
AudaExplore is a leading provider of automotive claims, underwriting and information solutions to insurance carriers and collision repair shops. Since 2010, Wolfgang Ahrens has been managing director of AudaExplore, where he has overseen operations and accelerated the development of innovative products and services to serve the needs of the American market.
OncoSec Uses Social Media Forums to Improve Clinical Trials
Biotechnology Column
Social networking helps patients with life-threatening conditions find both valuable information and peer counsel — and drug companies are finding these forums highly useful in developing clinical trials and treatments.
Regional Report
News and notes from communities around San Diego County
STM Bags, an Australian company with U.S. operations in Poway, recently released new cases for smartphones.
Real Estate Roundup
Projects, developments and other activity in cities in and around San Diego County
Voit Real Estate Services announced that Jonathan Segal, a San Diego-based urban-infill developer, has acquired a 29,700-square-foot site near the northeast corner of Balboa Park in the community of North Park for $2,250,000.
Gift of $3M Made to Salk Institute in Honor of Francis Crick
Kudos/Giving Column
Michael Crick, the son of the late Nobel laureate and Salk faculty member, Francis Crick, will donate approximately $3 million to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The funds come from the sale of a letter that Francis Crick wrote to his then-young son Michael describing his discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA.
Office Hours and the Office Are Being Redefined
I am writing this column from my home office, after the children have gone to sleep, and I am feeling a tinge of last minute energy.
Region Shares a Tremendous Asset: the Ocean
The recent 2013 Regional Economic Development Forum included a Mega-Region Economic Development Panel, six business leaders charged with discussing “economic development tools and regional assets” that have led to their firms’ successes. While not an intentional outcome of the session, five of the six panelists demonstrated that the ocean is important to their firms’ presence in the region. Among them, they represented San Diego’s manufacturing, research, military, tourism and marine sectors.
City Prepares for Leasing Decisions in Downtown
PROPERTY: Area’s Popularity Increasing With Various Firms
Mayor Bob Filner recently appointed Jason Hughes, who heads the local brokerage firm Hughes Marino Inc., to advise the City of San Diego on a volunteer basis as it decides what to do with a half-million square feet of downtown office leases set to expire in the next few months.
