Renovate Instead of Scrape, Scrape, Scrape

Gina Champion-Cain has built a business on preserving historic buildings.

Those who like historic preservation and sympathetic renovation of many Downtown areas, like San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, can count Gina Champion-Cain among the persons to thank. She is president and CEO of American National Investments, a specialty real estate development company based in San Diego that helps to reshape city centers up and down the West Coast.

“We specialize in urban redevelopment projects and historic preservation,” says the 36- year-old company founder. “Our focus is on the urban core in major cities where we want to preserve the historic character as much as we can.”

To date, major projects have been mostly in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland and Seattle, although Champion-Cain says the company is now making its first venture into New York.

American National Investments is handling deals worth $250 million and in a couple of months will be taking on up to 25 new staffers and moving to freshly renovated headquarters on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway. This is a company that started in 1997. “It was the best move I ever made,” says Champion-Cain,who previously was senior vice president with the Koll Co. and re-sponsible for huge retail and entertainment developments in Japan.

Champion-Cain is active in several professional organizations and has just been appointed chairwoman of the San Diego City Council’s housing authority and appeals board, which has a focus on affordable housing. That appointment led to her resign- ation after many years on the board of the La Jolla YMCA and the American Lung Association. However, she is continuing her involvement with the Downtown San Diego Partnership, which she will chair next year, and with the Culligan Holiday Bowl.