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ConVis Plans Move Next Month to Smaller Digs

After losing about a third of its staff to budget cuts, the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau is making tracks to leave its pricey Downtown quarters for smaller, less expensive accommodations in Little Italy.

On July 9, just more than a week after the bureau starts its new fiscal year, it will move from its 20,000-square-foot offices in the Wells Fargo Bank tower on Broadway to a 10,000-square-foot converted warehouse on India Street.

ConVis negotiated with DiZinno Thompson, its advertising agency, and the building’s former tenant, to take over its six-year lease on the building.

“We’ll be paying roughly a third of what we’re currently paying for space that’s half the size that we now have,” said Reint Reinders, the agency’s president and chief executive officer. DiZinno Thompson vacated the India Street offices after merging with Encinitas-based NYCA this year.

Reinders said the rent on the new offices will run about $200,000 annually, vs. the $500,000 it’s currently paying.

“When you look at the totality of the lease, we’ll be able to save $1.3 million over a six-year period,” Reinders said.

ConVis plans to start moving in July 9, Reinders said, adding that its rent won’t start until September, and it won’t have to do any fix-ups since the new quarters suit the bureau’s needs perfectly.

“There will probably be some overlap in rent, but we budgeted for that,” he said.

Meanwhile, ConVis is in talks with a law firm to sublet its Downtown offices but hasn’t finalized a sublease agreement as yet, Reinders said.

“The moving committee (of the bureau’s board of directors) said that since we’re planning to move, we should go ahead and do it and that will make it easier to sublet this space,” he said.

ConVis still has six years remaining on its current lease, and the agreement stipulates that it will have to spend up to $200,000 to remodel the offices to accommodate a new tenant.

At present, ConVis has a staff of 66 people, having eliminated 31 jobs due to funding cuts. For the current fiscal year, City Hall pared the bureau’s share of funding from a 10.5 percent hotel room tax collection by 21.5 percent to $9.8 million. The remainder of its $12.5 million operating budget comes primarily from membership dues. The year before, the city allocation was cut by 10 percent and City Hall plans to slash an additional $1 million from the agency’s budget for fiscal 2006, which begins July 1.

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New Officers For ConVis:

Meanwhile, Ray Warren, the general manager of the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina, has been appointed to serve as the new board chairman for ConVis for the upcoming fiscal year. Joe Craver, who heads Galaxie Management and is chairman of the board of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, will be the first vice chairman. Lorin Stewart, the general manager of Old Town Trolley Tours, will be the second vice chairman. Andy Fichthorn, the executive vice president and general manager of SeaWorld San Diego, will serve as treasurer, while Susie Baumann, the owner of the Bali Hai and Lighthouse restaurants, will serve as secretary.

Reinders has announced that he will retire from his post as president of the 1,200-member association in June 2006 after completing 15 years on the job.

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Grand Del Mar Selects Architect:

The San Diego-based Altevers Associates Architecture and Planning, has tapped by Manchester Grand Resorts, to lead the design of its Grand Del Mar resort, which includes the 261-room Grand Del Mar Hotel & Spa and the Grand Villas, the Grand Golf Club, a 39-unit complex of fractional share ownership vacation homes on a 380-acre site that includes the Grand Golf Club in Carmel Valley. A fractional ownership means buyers own deeded shares of the homes.

The buildings broke ground earlier this year, and a December 2006 opening is planned.


Send tourism and hospitality news to Connie Lewis by e-mail to: clewis@sdbj.com. She may also be reached by phone at (858) 277-6359.

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