Nothing pisses me off more than boring corner towers.
Coming off an über-successful January IPO, Novato-based Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. has seized all the space in the office building at 60 Leveroni Ct. Its expanded digs will suffice for a year. After that, it’ll likely go shopping in Marin for more space.
The company is looking to double the number of employees it had last year, with as many as 120 employees calling Novato home by the end of 2014. The company, like BioMarin, develops drugs to treat rare or “orphan” medical diseases. The designation, bestowed by the Federal Drug Administration, allows for a swifter drug approval process to encourage companies to research conditions that don’t have large patient populations. The orphan drug niche isn’t the only thing that links Ultragenyx to BioMarin. Its management roster reads like a BioMarin alumni mailing list. Its CEO, Dr. Emil Kakkis, is ex-BioMarin, as are VPs John Ditton, Cordelia Leonard, Steven Jungles and Vimal Srivastava.
Ultragenyx raised $139 million in its IPO and has watched its stock more than double from $21 per share when it debuted in January of this yearto a closing price of $58.99 on April 11.
Georgia-based TSYS raised its majority ownership stake in San Rafael’s Central Payment from 60 to 75 percent with a recent transaction. TSYS, which is privately held, didn’t want to talk about the terms of the deal. Central Payment offers payment processing services and social marketing to small and middle-market merchants. TSYS processes more than $1 trillion per year in payment transactions, according to the company. Central Payment founders, brothers Zach and Matt Hyman, came out of the agreement with new, three-year deals to remain at Central Payment as co-managing directors.
This, with a side of that
Petaluma-based Athleta, the women’s athletic wear retailer that made the jump from Internet sales to bricks and mortar stores, is moving from Mill Valley’s upscale Strawberry Village shopping center to the swank Village at Corte Madera. Athleta, acquired by Gap in 2009 for $150 million, says the new store will open later this year. At the Village, it will go toe-to-toe with Lululemon, the chain that drew too much attention last year for letting its yoga pants draw a little too much attention to madame’s derriere. The ensuing flap over semi-transparent $90 yoga-wear showing a little too much cheek showed the door to Chairman and founder Chip Wilson…A little further north on Highway 101, HomeGoods is opening its first Marin location at the Northgate Mall. The former home to Rite Aid Drugs will house the home décor store after a $400,000 facelift. HomeGoods, which is owned by TJX Inc., opened a Petaluma location earlier this year. TJX also owns retailers Marshall’s, TJ Maxx and Sierra Trading Post. A TJ Maxx opened last year in San Rafael in the building that Border’s called home before it went bankrupt…Back to BioMarin for a moment. The company, which recently purchased the San Rafael Corporate Center for $116.5 million from San Rafael-based Seagate Properties, received the OK from the city’s design review board for its concept of a six-story garage. The 649-space garage and an 89,000-square-foot office building is all that’s left undone from the original 1998 master plan. The design review board said it wanted more interesting corner towers added to the design, and it’s right. Nothing pisses me off more than boring corner towers…A quick word of remembrance for Mike DiGiorgio, the former mayor of Novato and a successful realtor and past president of the Novato Chamber of Commerce: Mike died of leukemia in April at the age of 74. There were times when I asked Mike tough questions as he did his time at City Hall, and he never balked, though sometimes the answers sounded like an ad for one of the houses he was selling: “Bill, I wouldn’t say the council dodged that issue, we just want to give it more careful consideration.” And that house isn’t small, it’s cozy…From the shuffling the deck dept., Rick Wells has slipped the leash as CEO of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce and jumped over to head the Marin Builders Association. And the Chamber elevated Joanne Webster from director of marketing to CEO. Webster has sweet experience: She owned Double Rainbow Café on Fourth Street for better than 20 years.
Your Marin moment
Spotted on the sign at the front door of The Flatiron, the venerable sports bar at 2nd and B Streets in San Rafael: “Prius Owners get 20% off Bacon Cheeseburgers.” No mention of organic, grass-fed beef or fair trade tofu. What the hell is going on around here?
