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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Economy Getting Back on Track As Re-Balancing Is Under Way

North County is starting to see signs of economic recovery. Everything from dozens of new restaurants, hotels, motels and schools to road improvements, retail outlets and remodeling projects have created hundreds of new jobs.

While reading my mail, newspapers and scanning e-mails the last couple of weeks, I started to see a negative spin on things. I convinced myself that the various facets of our economy sometimes need to rebalance. Boy, did we re-balance. Here is what I was experiencing:

• The five-diamond Four Seasons Resort Aviara, managed by the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts chain, was in dispute with the hotel’s owner, and as a result was being kicked out of town by a group of federal judges. The arbitration panel voted that the two groups were suffering from irreconcilable differences and the only way to deal with it was to separate the parties.

This hit us in North County like a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. But we picked up another first-class organization with new management from Hyatt Corp. As of June 21, the name of the game (and the hotel) will change.

• April 19, the elected board of directors of Tri-City Medical Center fired the president and CEO, Larry Anderson. A couple of days later, the board brought him back. In addition, the board chairwoman resigned. It seemed to be some kind of misunderstanding; the group will re-evaluate its CEO again in August. Anderson was the fourth CEO in two years, but he was doing amazing things at the community hospital — winning a major reaccreditation, refinancing some debt, winning several awards, and the list goes on. Re-balancing, I guess.

Building 600 Homes

• A different spin was happening elsewhere. With the single-family housing bomb still echoing around the nation, here in North County, developers are building again. Brookfield Homes, Lyon Properties and D.R. Horton Inc. have teamed up to build hundreds of new homes at the Foothills of Carlsbad site, which is the old Robertson Ranch development.

Work on nearly 600 homes is under way, with models open to potential buyers. Brookfield, in particular, took its downtime and designed an all-new, green-home community.

Houses in the development feature tankless water heaters, recessed fluorescent lights, kitchen recycling centers and programmable thermostats.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. estimates that the homes will see a $101 reduction in energy costs per month because of these sustainable efforts.

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