San Diego Biz Watch

By Debbie Sklar | August 15, 2010

The dog days of summer are here but that doesn’t seem to stop the business world from moving forward. In fact, there are lots going on in San Diego from new paint stores to a local tuna manufacturer merging with a lobster company. Read on.

Paint Is Where Its At

Apparently, the need for residential and commercial professional painting services continues in high demand say the folks at Fresh Coat Painting. The company,whose franchise headquarters is based in Cincinnati opened 21 new painting franchises in 2009 (an average of one opening every three weeks) and has sold 12 more franchises during the first half of 2010.

“Home and commercial painting is a $30 billion and growing industry,” says Fresh Coat Painting’s CEO Ralph Martin. “We’re blessed to be in such a hot market and we continue to attract high-caliber professionals who are passionate about entrepreneurship and eager to be business owners.”

One of the new franchise owners is Brad Storey of San Diego. “Our franchisees are business owners—not painters,” Martin says. “They hire a client services manager and high-quality employees who work closely with customers to make sure the work is done right and on time.” Fresh Coat differentiates itself from the professional painting market in many ways including $199 per-room painting specials, premium paint brands always used and included at no extra cost, estimating software, popular referral programs, financing, automatic touch-up services, and a 24/7 Call Center.

Founded in 2004, Fresh Coat franchises are located throughout the US and in Puerto Rico. In 2010, Entrepreneur magazine ranked Fresh Coat a “Top Home-based Business” and included it in their prestigious Franchise 500 list for the third year in a row.

New Cancer Clinic

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has announced the opening of the first clinic in the San Diego region dedicated to mapping and monitoring pre-cancerous moles. The mission of UCSD’s Pigmented Lesion and Skin Cancer Clinic, under the direction Richard L. Gallo, MD, PhD, Chief, Division of Dermatology, is to provide a high level of specialized care for patients with melanoma or those with the potential for developing melanoma. SkinMedica has provided a $100,000 philanthropic donation to help launch the clinic and is committing a $1 donation from the sale of every SkinMedica sunscreen product sold globally to fund skin cancer research and detection.

“There is a great need for this service in San Diego and we are happy to bring this long-awaited project to our community,” Gallo says. “Melanoma, when caught early, is 90 percent curable. Dermatology is at the front line of this battle. It is our responsibility to diagnose early.”

“Richard Gallo is a scientist and physician who combines state-of-the-art investigation and dedication to his specialty with outstanding patient care. He has given us so many ‘firsts’ in skin biology, and now the first pigmented lesion screening clinic here in San Diego,” says Mary Fisher, President and CEO, SkinMedica. “Photo damage from sun exposure is not just about aging and appearance, which is at the heart of our work at SkinMedica, but about cancer risk. We are honored to join Dr. Gallo and the team at UCSD in bringing this life-saving resource forward.”

Skin cancer is the most common of all cancers and accounts for nearly half of all cancers in the United States according to the American Cancer Society. More than 1 million cases of non-melanoma skin cancer are found in this country each year. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, Basal Cell Carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer in the US and the world and the number of cases continue to rise due in large part to unprotected exposure to the harmful rays of the sun.

Melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, is the most common form of cancer in young adults (25-29) and the second most common form in adolescents and young adults (15-29) according to the American Melanoma Foundation.

UC San Diego Health Sciences is recognized internationally for excellence and innovation and its proven track record in scientific breakthroughs. Health Sciences encompasses the School of Medicine, the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the UC San Diego Medical Group and UC San Diego Medical Center – the system of patient services provided at Hillcrest Medical Center, Thornton Hospital, Moores UCSD Cancer Center, Shiley Eye Center and other primary and specialty practices located throughout San Diego.

Taking Up Residence

Bridgepoint Education, Inc., a provider of postsecondary education services focused on providing higher access to higher education, will begin operations later this month in its sixth San Diego building. The company’s newest location is at 5855 Copley Drive in the Kearny Mesa area.

The 80,000-square-foot office space will house more than 400 Bridgepoint employees. It will be used for administrative space to support Bridgepoint’s Ashford University and University of the Rockies online learners.

“As Bridgepoint Education continues to grow, we are pleased to expand ourpresence in San Diego,” says Bridgepoint Education chief executive officer Andrew Clark. “This is our hometown and we are proud to employ thousands of San Diegans. The new facility will give us an opportunity to have an even greater impact in our community.”

The new location on Copley Drive will add to Bridgepoint Education’s presence in San Diego. The company also occupies three buildings at its Sabre Springs headquarters on Evening Creek Drive North, the Sunroad Spectrum building in Kearny Mesa and a location in downtown San Diego at 600 B St. Bridgepoint Education now occupies nearly 672,000 square feet of office space in San Diego and employs 2,900 full-time, non-faculty personnel in the San Diego area.

Bridgepoint Education’s postsecondary education services focus on offering Associate’s, Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral programs in such disciplines as business, education, psychology, social sciences and health sciences.

Top University

Woodbury University with a campus in San Diego tops a list recently released from the Education Trust of private institutions that succeed in graduating Latino students at rates similar to those for white students. The Education Trust singled out Woodbury as a school where Latino students are thriving; noting that 31 percent of Woodbury students are Hispanic and that the graduation rate for this population is 62 percent—well above the 47 percent rate for Latino students nationally.

The report, “Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating Hispanic Students,” contends that what universities do to promote student success has a tremendous impact, especially for Hispanic students.

“Woodbury’s Hispanic students are typically the first in their families to go to college, and they’re coming here in search of their entry to economic success,” says David M. Rosen, Ph.D., senior vice president, Academic Affairs, Woodbury University. “For them, as the Education Trust report makes clear, a college education is their ticket to fulfilling their dreams, the dreams of their families, and the dreams of their communities. Woodbury feels a deep responsibility to help turn these aspirations into reality.”

Nearly 70 percent of Woodbury undergraduates are in studio-based academic programs in the School of Architecture and the School of Media, Culture & Design, with students working daily on projects and receiving real-time feedback from their professors and fellow students as opposed to periodically taking tests. Students in Woodbury’s School of Business and the Institute for Transdisciplinary Studies benefit similarly from project-based learning and close interaction with faculty.

Other factors that contribute to high Latino graduation rates at Woodbury include an emphasis on student success through the university’s support services, including a program that assigns each student a peer mentor in their first semester.

The full report from the Education Trust is available online by visiting the Woodbury University website, www.woodbury.edu, or at the Education Trust website,www.edtrust.org. Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California. Woodbury offers bachelor’s degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and Institute of Transdisciplinary Studies, along with an MBA program, Master of Architecture, Master of Architecture in Real Estate Development, and Master of Organizational Leadership. A San Diego campus offers bachelor of architecture and Master of Architecture in Real Estate Development degrees.

Tuna and Lobster

Bumble Bee Foods has entered into an agreement with Massachusetts-based LiveLobster Co. Inc., for the sale of the North America seafood company’s former sardine manufacturing plant at Prospect Harbor, Maine. The sale is expected to close in about 70 days at which time Live Lobster will assume control of the plant and will expand its lobster supply, sales, and distribution business into Prospect Harbor. Live Lobster’s involvement in the sale of the plant will mean the creation of up to 40 jobs for the local community in the first year.

Lobster and bait purchase, and sales operations will begin this month. Live Lobster anticipates full lobster processing operations will commence in 2011 with the potential for up to 120 total employment opportunities projected by 2012.

Bumble Bee Foods operated the Prospect Harbor sardine processing plant from 2004 through April 2010. Earlier this year, the company announced that ongoing significant reductions in catch limits made it economically prohibitive to continue operations. Regulated catch levels for herring saw a reduction of 50 percent in Total Allowable Catch since 2004. The plant was the last domestic cannery for sardines in the United States.

Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, headquartered in San Diego, is North America’s largest branded shelf-stable seafood company, offering a full line of canned and pouched tuna, salmon, sardine, and specialty protein products marketed in the U.S. under leading brands including Bumble Bee®, Brunswick®, Snow’s® and Beach Cliff®, and in Canada under the Clover Leaf® brand. Live Lobster LLC, Inc., headquartered in Chelsea, Mass., is the leading distributor of Maine lobsters.

Photos from ggvic, ericskiff, and cjc4454 via Flickr