Monday, October 18, 2021

8611 Balboa Ave, San Diego

A godsend found among my many yellow tinged papers is a checkout receipt dated May 1, 1957 from the Lafayette Hotel and Club, 2223 El Cajon Blvd, San Diego, together with the paper clipped article about the hotel’s renovation. A quote from the newspaper reads, “Built in 1946, Lafayette offers deluxe guest rooms, including one- and two-bedroom suites with fireplaces, libraries, mini-bars and large terraces. The complex surrounds the original 25-meter swimming pool and patio courtyard”. My receipt was for $8 per night.

I don’t know why this Lafayette Hotel, far from downtown San Diego, was chosen by our travel agent. Surely there were many other hotels located closer to San Diego’s Lindbergh Airport. Perhaps their austere choice was influenced by the fact that our trip was sponsored by a Boston company to conclude a technology assistance agreement, and the Japanese Government had yet to liberalize the yen — so Japanese citizens had no access to purchase U.S. dollars.

I had a free Sunday morning to walk around the Lafayette grounds on El Cajon Blvd. Amusingly, the cross-streets on the left were named Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, Arizona on the right. Jacaranda trees along the streets were in full bloom with purple flowers. They looked so beautiful like the Japanese cherry blossoms.

Never had I dreamed that I would live in San Diego for 20 years. When I had a chance to revisit the Lafayette, I was surprised that the hotel had become the local Immigration Bureau. I had to accompany our family there when they arrived.

Another surprise was the Honeywell Building on Balboa Ave., in Kearny Mesa. In 1957, my boss informed me that Honeywell had agreed, in writing, to show us their plant. We went there only to be detained by their on-site security. Why? They show the plant only to customers. Period. Yes, my employer produced some competitive products, but Honeywell also made many products that were not in competition with goods made by my employer. The misunderstanding was cleared up and we walked through the plant only in the areas for non-competitive products.

In 1973, I joined Kyocera at the Kearny Villa Plant in Kearny Mesa, within walking distance of that Honeywell facility. My primary job, in addition to being the plant controller, was to build a new bigger ceramic plant at a 17-acre site, obtained through the San Diego Economic Development Corp, with the help of construction consultants such as Frank Hope & Associates and Nielsen. Critical was solving the high-tension power transmission line issues involving SDG&E professionals, but we got past them and had final blueprints ready for local bidders. The construction teams were elated.

Then out of blue, the 21-acre land, 288,000 square foot plant facility Honeywell Plant I had walked through 15 years ago, went up for sale! Unbelievable! The dilemma now was either to stick to the construction plan or to make a windfall deal? Kyocera’s decision was a wise one – to buy rather than build. “The greater embraces the less” goes the proverb. In short, Kyocera's diversification requirements and Honeywell's cash requirements matched up perfectly. The address of 8611 Balboa Avenue became the US headquarters for Kyocera International.

Kyocera's purchase included taking over the lease for a number of big tenants, including General Dynamics, Rohr, and San Diego County Office, which assisted with Kyocera’s gradual and flexible future expansion. Added to my job was the impossibly “lucky” role of ‘tenant relations.’ I worked for almost 20 years at 8611 Balboa until my retirement.

P.S. I found out that the Lafayette Hotel is still going strong as per Jay Scovie, Kyocera's Corporate Director for Communication & Education. I owe him the link to the hotel website below:
Lafayette Hotel Website

5 comments:

Unknown said...

ブログ拝見致しました。いろいろなブログを書かれており素晴らしいですね。
一昨年、サンディエゴのオフィスに出張しました。またその際にサンタバーバラまで足を運びUCSBに在籍する出向者にも会いに行き、大学内を見学させていただきました。
サンディエゴオフィスの成り立ちの様子を今村さんのブログで知ることができ、非常に勉強になりました。ありがとうございます。

良いご縁をいただきありがとうございます。

Visited-Ken

rio imamura said...

Thank you, Ken for visiting my blog. Pleased to know you had a chance to
visit San Diego as well as Santa Barbara, both of which I'm so familiar with. Did you have a chance to meet Dr. Nakamura, Nobel winner at UCSB?
ri

Unknown said...

Thank you for your reply.
At that time, I did not meet Dr. Nakamura. I only met the expatriate who was belong to the laboratory of Dr. Nakamura. As you may know, our company merged the company which Dr. Nakamura established in Santa Barbara as a member of founders, so now the company is one of our subsidiaries in US from the beginning of 2021.

Our company is now still keep growing and aim to be the best company ever.

Please keep watching over us as a strong supporter:)

Thank you.

Ken

rio imamura said...

いつもブログを送っていただきありがとうございます。リオさんのブログを読んだり読まなかったりしているレージ―な私ですが、今回のブログ「サンヂエゴ」は読みましたよ。サンヂエゴに K 本部が来た経緯がよくわかりました。有難うございました。Shida

Shida-san,thank you very much for your visit. Yes, the first impression of San Diego in 1950s was unforgettable, together with the beautiful Jacaranda flowers. Learned Jaca trees came from Brazil. But saw Jacas in New Zealand and Australia, as well as in African Congo. Lumunbasshi in particular colored in purple haze. Equally surprisingly superb as we saw together magnolia flowers in Mississippi. Again thank you for your visit.

rio imamura said...

Rio-san, there are many mysteries in our lives. In 1957, you had a chance to visit Honeywell Inc as a visitor from Japan; then, after 15 years later, you were among the construction team of Kyocera plant nearby, but Kyocera bought the Honeywell Building on sale instead, as its US Headquarters and Plant, you as in Admin and as occupant. Wasn’t it a miracle to you!

Kyocera still owns that building and this year is the 56th years since then. I remember you have contributed greatly in establishing Minato Gakuen, The Saturday Japanese Language School, as well as the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park. Both of them have been successful. Congratulations! Thank you, Rio-san!  fumie

Fumie-san, thank you very much leaving your comments. Yes, I feel a sort of telepathy in the Honeywell Building. Never have I imagined to be my life work site! Just lucky to work at such wonderful location together with great people; bosses, colleagues, friends and you, under the same roof. Wishing the very best and further progress of Kyocera! It's really
nice to be working with you. As always. rio