The document discusses three main topics: 1) Commercial real estate company JLL says the pool of buyers and capital is increasing, fueling more competition in commercial property sectors. 2) A professor says President Obama may be willing to negotiate some aspects of the Affordable Care Act, such as the definition of a full-time employee. 3) Thanks to an improving economy, a San Diego property disposition company is handling fewer bank foreclosure cases, though some pockets remain.

1. Lynn LaChapelle,
of brokerage company
JLL, says the pool of
buyers and capital
sources is increasing,
fueling more
competition in the
commercial real
estate sectors.
Page 21
RealEstate
Leslie Bruce,
of the University
of California,
San Diego, says
President Obama
may be willing to
negotiate on some
aspects of the
new health care
law, such as the
definition of full-time
employees at 30
hours a week.
Page 12
HealthCare Loan Distress
On the Decline
PROPERTY: Glut of Loans
Coming Due Should Be OK
■ By LOU HIRSH
Thanks to an improving commercial real
estate climate, San Diego-based Douglas
Wilson Cos. has witnessed a steady decline in
bank foreclosures on properties since the end
of the Great Recession, meaning less need
for its bank- and court-appointed property
disposition services, though there are still
pockets of those cases being handled by the
company’s four offices nationwide.
“The caseload now is a fraction of what it
Making
Winners
Melissa Jacobs
Michael Gottlieb, senior director of game development at the SoCal Slot Shop, stands by the new
Wonder Woman game.
Movie Plays Supporting Role for Legoland
TOURISM: Attraction Builds
On Attention Film Generates
■ By LOU HIRSH
An old-school toymaker went Hollywood
in a big way this year, as “The Lego Movie”
racked up more than $468 million in global
ticket sales.
And the Carlsbad theme park that carries
the licensed Lego brand — but had nothing
to do with making the film — is among those
reaping benefits in what operators describe
as bigger, more engaged crowds and a newly
SANDIEGOBUSINESS JOURNAL
sdbj.com
T H E C O M M U N I T Y O F B U S I N E S STM
GAMING: Bally Bets on
S.D. Slot Designers to Pay Off
■ By BRAD GRAVES
Los Angeles has pop culture, Las Vegas
has the casino game industry and San
Diego has an abundance of software talent.
Bally Technologies Inc. combines all three
at a small office located between Interstate
15 and the Poway city limit.
Blink and you might miss it. The SoCal
Slot Shop on Scripps Summit Drive is one
of more than two dozen design studios in
various cities that Bally — a $1.2 billion
Las Vegas company that trades under the
symbol BYI — relies on to keep its offerings
current.
Slot machines are a multibillion-dollar
business, according to one analyst, with a
worldwide market. It is places such as the
office in San Diego’s North County that
keep casino floors up to date.
Legoland page 68
Volume 35, Number 46 November 17-23, 2014 $2.00
The Lists
Largest
Commercial
Real Estate
Sales
Page 24
Largest
Commercial
Real Estate
Leases
Page 26
Largest
Commercial
Office
Buildings
Page 31
WOMEN WHO MEAN
BUSINESS AWARDS
SANDIEGOBUSINESS JOURNAL
sdbj.com
T H E C O M M U N I T Y O F B U S I N E S STM
Special Report:
Supplement:
Commercial
Real Estate Update
PAGE 21
Photos courtesy of Legoland California Resort
Legoland California Resort General Manager Peter
Ronchetti announced plans for a new Star Wars
Miniland Death Star attraction.
Gaming page 66
Loans page 76
LA JOLLA
4340 La Jolla Village Drive
SAN DIEGO GASLAMP
570 K Street
PHOENIX
3101 E. Camelback Road
donovanssteakhouse.com Reservations: 877-698-6666 Private Events: 877-266-6336
Donovan’s sets the standard of fine dining excellence.
WWMB
A look at the 40 winners and the five
Awards of Distinction honorees from
the 21st annual Women Who Mean
Business Awards.
PAGES A33-A63

2. Page 66 www.sdbj.com SAN DIEGO BUSINESS JOURNAL November 17, 2014
The days of one-armed bandits have
given way to machines that take many of
their cues from video game culture, said
Michael Gottlieb, who leads the local
design studio.
The 11 employees of the SoCal Slot
Shop write code for slot machines. San
Diego is a particularly attractive place to
have a studio because of its talent pool,
Gottlieb said. Sony and Rockstar Games
both have large video game studios
here. It’s a competitive market for talent
and Bally pays appropriately, the local
manager said. What’s more, Bally is able
to offer interesting work that attracts
talented software writers.
Gottlieb, who has been in the local
market since 1996, said the video game
community in San Diego is small and
tight-knit. “You tend to know who the
good people are,” he said. “When you
haveanopportunitytonabthem,youdo.”
Gottlieb declined to give salary ranges.
He said he employs senior engineers with
upwards of 10 years’ experience, and
sometimes 15 or 20. Pay can easily be in
the six-figure range.
An Industry in Transition
Right now, the landscape is changing
for the people who build and service slot
machines. It is consolidating.
Scientific Games Corp. announced
plans in August to acquire Bally in a
transaction valued at $5.1 billion, which
includes a plan to refinance $1.8 billion
of Bally debt. Scientific Games (Nasdaq:
SGMS) is based in New York.
Bally reported net income of $98.6
million on revenue of $1.2 billion in its
last fiscal year, which ended June 30.
Bally’s revenue increased 22 percent from
fiscal 2013, though net income slipped
30 percent.
In terms of revenue, Bally lags behind
a Reno-based slot machine maker,
International Game Technology (NYSE:
IGT), which had $2 billion in 2014
and has the right to produce “Wheel
of Fortune”-themed games. IGT saw
its revenue decline 12 percent from the
previous year.
Like its competitor, IGT is about to
get bigger. Italy-based lottery technology
provider GTECH S.p.a. is buying IGT for
$4.7 billion in cash and stock; GTECH
will also assume $1.7 billion in debt. The
combined company, to be called Georgia
Worldwide Plc. and based in the United
Kingdom, is expected to have revenue in
the $6 billion range.
Chris Jones, an analyst from Union
Gaming Research in Las Vegas, said he
sees consolidation ahead, particularly
in duplicative back office operations.
Customer-facing operations such as the
SoCal Slot Shop may better weather any
consolidation effort, he said.
Gottlieb said the sale will have no
impact on the San Diego outpost.
Star-Struck
Bally gets the inspiration for games
from the world of comics, television and
movies. A Wonder Woman game has just
hit the market, and a new Betty Boop
offering is slated for 2015.
Actually, there are two new Wonder
Woman machines. Each has a concave,
high-resolution screen; at 42 inches, the
screen takes up a good deal of the player’s
field of vision. The machines feature
video clips from the 1970s TV series
starring Lynda Carter. The video, already
good because it was film footage, gets
an additional boost from sophisticated
from page 1
Gaming:
graphics.
The machine’s music is literally a
blast from the past. Players who score
well during the game get a sudden,
loud, extended version of the “Wonder
Woman” theme, with a driving disco
beat and Motown vocals. Even in a noisy
casino, every player in the vicinity will
notice the win.
The Barona Resort & Casino near
Lakeside already has the Wonder Woman
game. The Pechanga Resort & Casino
in Riverside County is set to receive it
this month, along with venues on the
Morongo and San Manuel reservations
farther north.
The upcoming Betty Boop game, also
with a concave, 42-inch screen, has the
1930s-era heroine shopping on Fifth
Avenue. The player interacts with the
machine via touchscreen. The game
includes animation, produced by the
San Diego game designers. Bally used
Hollywood talent to record the voice of
Betty Boop.
The current-generation slot machine
is very much like a video game console,
such as the Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:
MSFT) Xbox. When a casino operator
wants a change, Gottlieb said, he simply
buys new software.
Gottlieb, 44, came over from Midway
Games where he worked from 1994 to
2009; most of that time was spent in
Midway’sSanDiegostudio.Today,healso
oversees a Bally design studio in Arizona.
The market for casino games is strong,
Gottlieb said, because people eventually
get their fill of certain video games and
then want something different.
The appetite for something new is
constant.
Melissa Jacobs
Graphic Artist Michael Lopez works on a game at his computer at the headquarters of the SoCal Slot Shop, a division of BallyTechnologies Inc.
Melissa Jacobs
Michael Gottlieb, senior director of game development, and Producer Phelan Sykes discuss a storyboard in a conference room at the SoCal
Slot Shop.