State-sponsored UCSD has completed a deal to buy, at an unannounced cost, a posh 87-unit furnished apartment building in East Village, to be rented exclusively to its employees.

Jeff Silberman develops 87 apartments in East Village for La Jolla university

A stiff price is being paid for the sprawling expansion of UCSD beyond its original boundaries; taxpayers remain largely in the dark, as exemplified by a reported $42-million insider real estate transaction involving some of San Diego’s wealthiest Democrats.

While San Diego mayor Todd Gloria is debating critics over how to house the downtown homeless, the state-sponsored university has completed a deal to buy, at an unannounced cost, a posh 87-unit furnished apartment building in East Village, to be rented exclusively to its employees. “The University has closed on a newly constructed apartment community, Framework, located in downtown San Diego,” says Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth H. Simmons in an October 18 online announcement.

“The apartments range from 317 square feet to 502 square feet in size, with starting monthly rents ranging from $1975 per month to $2675 per month. Each unit is fully furnished and features floor-to-ceiling windows, a stacked washer/dryer, and a large walk-in shower.” Per the notice, “Framework features a fitness center for residents, a café-style co-working space, high-speed Wi-Fi, keyless entry, and a rooftop community lounge with an outdoor terrace.” According to a website targeting prospective tenants, “In order to benefit as many as possible, lease terms are limited to 2 years, and subletting is not allowed. Half of the units will initially be reserved for faculty and academic appointees and half for career staff from both UC San Diego and UC San Diego Health.”

Jeff Silberman knows that wealth-building requires a Framework.

Adding to the intrigue surrounding the university’s low-key deal, Framework was developed by Carleton Management, Inc., run by Jeff Silberman, son of disgraced San Diego financier Dick Silberman, a onetime close advisor to Democratic Governor Jerry Brown who was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison in September 1990 after being set up by the FBI in a drug money laundering scheme.

“Framework represents the newest ideal in urban living, with fully furnished units available for rent, perfect for maintaining a minimal footprint and accessing everything the East Village of San Diego has to offer,” reads a pitch on Carleton’s website predating UCSD’s purchase. The younger Silberman is married to Karen Foster, who, along with her sibling Lisa Foster, the wife of ex-San Diego school chief and Clinton-era U.S. Attorney Alan Bersin, inherited the array of East Village properties and development projects Carleton now manages.

In April 2006, the Foster sisters’ mother, Pauline Foster, who died in 2016, gave $5 million to UCSD’s Rady School of Management to set up the Stanley and Pauline Foster Endowed Chair. “In our family, philanthropy means much more than writing a check; it’s also trying to make a difference with our gifts,” Pauline Foster was quoted as saying in an April 16, 2006, UCSD news release touting the contribution.

“Mrs. Foster has generously agreed to allow a portion of her gift to be leveraged to complete the Rady School’s first building, Otterson Hall. The state-of-the art facility is intended to facilitate interaction between the business school, the UCSD campus, and the community at large.” In addition, Jeff Silberman is currently on the board of the UCSD foundation.

U-T’s upbeat year

As the Covid-19 pandemic has waned, some numbers for the San Diego Union-Tribune are showing sharp improvement for 2022 over 2021. Distribution is up from a daily average of 68,259 copies during the twelve months ending October 1, 2021, to 97,456 during the same period this year, per the paper’s annual circulation and ownership statements mandated by the U.S. Postal Service found in the U-T each October.

Secretive neighbors sought to sack Chesa Boudin

In 2021 the total U-T press run, including distributed and non-distributed copies, was said to be 75,241. In 2022, that number was 107,901. On the other hand, the portion of paid distributed copies slipped from 96.97 percent in the 2021 period to 89.2 percent during the same time for 2022. Total paid distribution was reported to be 66,192 in the 2021 period, and 86,890 in 2022...

Money continues to pour into the pro-choice state constitutional amendment committee run by San Diego Democrat Toni Atkins, the state senate leader. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and the Hospitals put in $250,000 on October 18, state disclosure records show. The same day, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy of San Rafael gave $40,000.

That group, characterized as “secretive” by SFist.com, gave two-thirds of the cash used to recall liberal San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin June 7,  according to the website. “They have no address listed, but we do see a phone number. That phone number belongs to a law-firm-slash-lobbying-group called Nielsen Merksamer, who are based in Sacramento, but have a San Rafael office.”

One of the biggest donors so far this year has been Miriam Haas of San Francisco, with a total of $383,000 through September 24, according to state filings. Haas, a billionaire, is the widow of Peter E. Haas, an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune. Planned Parenthood Action Fund of the Pacific Southwest, based in San Diego, gave the Atkins fund $45,000 on October 14, and stage and film star Barbra Streisand of Malibu contributed $5000 on October 12.

— Matt Potter (@sdmattpotter)

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