The city block bounded by Third and Fourth avenues and Grape and Fir streets near downtown and Bankers Hill had been a parking lot since 1947. And before that it was the location of the historic Florence Hotel, before it burned down.

With a celebratory ribbon-cutting at its new Receiving and Distribution Center Wednesday, San Diego International Airport officially completed the first project in its history to utilize a public-private partnership.

Brian Malarkey, known for offering rich food and drinks at his upscale restaurants around the county, is expanding into the fast casual segment by planting another healthy café at one of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc.’s life sciences campuses.

(AP) -- An invasive beetle that attacks oak trees has been found in a California black oak tree in the Riverside County mountain town of Idyllwild.

San Diego County voters approved more than $3.4 billion in school construction bonds in November’s general election that will go toward improving campuses and purchasing new equipment for students and faculty members.

Construction has been completed in the replacement of the Nordahl Road Bridge in San Marcos, a project expected to bring some relief to what’s considered the county’s worst corridor for afternoon traffic bottlenecks.

The San Diego City Council gave authorization Tuesday for the $14.2 million Horton Plaza Improvement Project to go to bid, voting unanimously to allow Civic San Diego to find a contractor in time for construction to start by April 2013.

A bullet train linking Northern and Southern California will be an audacious engineering feat, because the line must cross two mountain ranges and a half-dozen earthquake faults, experts said.

(AP) -- One of the largest residential properties in the upscale Los Angeles west side is on the auction block.

The middle of November brings little work on the construction front, although municipalities are meeting.

After reviewing more financial details last week of a proposed contract to buy water from the planned seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad, the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors held a special board meeting Thursday.

San Diego will honor the nation’s heroes this Veterans Day for their patriotism, sacrifice and willingness to serve. A parade will step off in downtown San Diego Monday, and the rest of the week will follow with solar, planning, technology and architecture events – many of which may not have been possible without the dedication of the nation’s veterans.

San Diego County voters approved more than $3.4 billion in school construction bonds in Tuesday’s general election that will go toward improving campuses and purchasing new equipment for students and faculty members.

(Bloomberg) -- Cemex SAB wants to regain its status as an investment-grade company after the U.S. housing slump prompted four debt-ratings downgrades and led to 12 straight quarterly losses at the largest cement maker in the Americas.

General contractor Kitchell has broken ground on a housing project for Sunroad Enterprises in Del Mar.

Construction crews are getting the USS Midway Museum ready for the Battle on the Midway college basketball game on Sunday afternoon, Veterans Day.

SAN DIEGO – Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP (HFF) announced that its San Diego team led by Associate Director Zach Koucos, Senior Managing Director Tim Wright and real estate analyst Zack Holderman arranged an $11.5 million refinancing for Pacific Skies Estates, a 9-acre, 93-space manufactured home community in Pacifica, Calif.

San Diego County voters approved more than $3.40 billion in school construction bonds in Tuesday’s General Election that will go toward improving campuses and purchasing new equipment for students and faculty members.

Five of the 11 school construction bond measures to improve campuses have been passed by San Diego County voters in Tuesday’s General Election, though none of the three measures in North County were among them, as of Wednesday morning.

(AP) -- San Francisco voters rejected overwhelmingly a measure that sought to restore of flooded gorge in Yosemite National Park that is used as a city reservoir.