Much to celebrate even in economic downturn

National City has a much-celebrated history dating back 125 years, but it’s been the recent past and immediate future that gives the community reason to celebrate. In the midst of severe economic times, National City has attracted significant improvements and development in both the private and public sectors.

With nearly 61,000 residents, the city enjoys proximity to Downtown San Diego, the international border and other key locales, and is home to about 2,500 large and small businesses that collectively employ 29,000 workers.

Three years ago, Westfield invested $130 million in the city’s Westfield Plaza Bonita shopping mall, making it a cutting-edge retail center, complete with a 14-screen AMC IMAX Theatres complex. A 42,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack store is scheduled to open this fall.

In May, Mor Furniture for Less opened a 35,000-square-foot showroom in what had been an electronics store building; it’s the beneficiary of a city strategy to keep buildings occupied.

The city’s largest sales tax generator, the Mile of Cars, has experienced a 15 percent increase in auto sales over last year. Its executive director, Weldon Donaldson, attributes the growth not only to a better economy but the city’s current reinvestment activities.

For years, the city has had a vibrant bayfront, including the Port of San Diego’s National City Marine Terminal, the most advanced vehicle import and export facility on the West Coast, processing more than 270,000 new cars annually. More recently, the city, port district and Navy have been working together to develop other portions of the 461-acre bayfront.

The results have been impressive. The city’s Community Development Commission and the port district have produced more than $65 million in improvements, including a new 246-slip Pier 32 Marina, a restored Railcar Plaza and Santa Fe Historic Depot as well as streetscape improvements.

In that area, Sycuan Tribal Development Corp. developed the 174-room Marina Gateway Best Western Hotel, Buster’s Beach House restaurant and a multi-tenant retail center.

North of State Route 54, Sudberry Properties is planning a 270,000-square-foot retail and commercial center, to be anchored by a Lowe’s home improvement store. Future tenants to date include a CarMax automobile sales center and SONIC drive-in restaurant.

Downtown National City is being transformed via the 8th Street Corridor Smart Growth Revitalization Project. The initial phase, between the 8th Street Trolley Station and National City Boulevard, will include new lighting and historic banners, directional signs, street trees, bicycle lanes and a Historic Walk and Mural with decorative safety lighting and railings for the freeway underpass, pedestrian improvements, landscaped median islands and a news plaza at the trolley station, compete with new lighting, furnishings, an information kiosk, enhanced paving and landscaping, and upgrades that meet Americans With Disability Act standards.

Mor Furniture for Less: Leather Furniture Glossary

ANALINE DYED LEATHER - Lovers of truly natural products are particularly fond of these leathers: their unequaled, glove-soft texture adds an extra dimension of comfort to your sofa or chair. To create this luxurious softness and the rich gem-like color, aniline dyed leathers are tumbled for up to 12 hours in drums containing clear, transparent dyes. These dyes enhance the subtle variations of each hide. All leathers get better over time, but aniline dyed leathers develop a truly beautiful, distinctive patina which adds to its value as a focal point in your home. Only premium hides with the most pleasing color and texture are selected for this category, less than 5% of all upholstery hides in the world. Many grades of leather, from all tanneries, are aniline dyed and natural. SEMI-ANILINE LEATHER - Also referred to as "Aniline Plus," these leathers are first dyed in the penetrating aniline dyes. Then a topcoat is applied to even out the color of the hide surface. The topcoat also serves to create fading, and soil resistant pieces. Semi-aniline leathers are available in hundreds of colors. They retain a great amount of the softness of aniline dyed hides because the natural top grain is left intact.. A much larger proportion of the worldwide hide supply is suitable for this class of leather and as a result they are more moderately priced than pure aniline dyed hides. CORRECTED GRAIN LEATHER - Many hides are very marred by naturally occurring imperfections or "'thumbprints" such as insect bites, barbed wire scars, scrapes and other defects. To remove these imperfections, corrected Grain leathers are first sanded or buffed then usually embossed to restore a natural looking grain pattern. Finally, additional color and a protective coating is applied. Some natural softness is sacrificed in the process, but the great number of hides that fit this category make this the most economical grade of top grain leather furniture and extremely resistant to stains and fading. BONDED LEATHER - The bonded leather used in upholstered furniture is a polyurethane fabric that is then backed with a layer of latex or vinyl and mixed with leather fibers. The leather fibers are in the range of 15% to 20% of the total content. The leather is on the outside backing only. Therefore, a great way to explain these materials in this product is that bonded leather is a fabric (vinyl) that has the look and feel of leather but at fraction of the cost.

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