San Diego Metropolitan - 40 Under 40

When Jason Hughes was a hard-charging newcomer in the commercial real estate industry, he would relieve the stress of 15 hour days by hopping in his car for a drive to the Owens Valley for a quick climb up Mt. Whitney. These days, the Irving Hughes principal and top Downtown leasing broker still will work the long days, but for stress relief he heads home to be with the family.

Hughes and his college sweetheart, Shay Holder, married and lived in Los Angeles briefly before deciding it was no place to set up a life. While the couple at that time had no children, they were planning on a family and decided San Diego was the place to move.

When Shay was pregnant with their first child, she got so sick she had to leave her job. At the same time Hughes was coping with an entry-level salary that failed to cover the rent on the couple’s apartment. Hard work, including some weekend gardening, helped Hughes overcome those obstacles and today his family lives on a comfortable spread inside the Rancho Santa Fe covenant.

Among the stress-relievers at home was building his children a tree house and, near the edge of their property, a large playhouse that features satellite television, a ceiling fan, bed and refrigerator among its amenities.

To get away, the five-member family heads out on excursions like last month’s trip to a 7,000-square-foot log home on a private lake just outside Glacier National Park.

But it is his role with Irving Hughes — he teamed with partner Craig Irving in 1993 and his name was added to the firm in 1995 — that pays the bills. Hughes estimates that he will handle at least 75 percent of the commercial lease transactions Downtown this year. Other brokers with the tenant-rep firm handle other markets in the region.

The business partners also have taken on other challenges, like the purchase and expansion of ConfirmNet Corp., a developer of Web-based certificates of insurance. Hughes learned about the company from its former owner, a fellow polo player. He and Irving bought it two years ago, attracted fresh investors and shifted into expansion mode.

Hughes, 34, also is using his brokerage expertise to help Lankford & Associates line up commitments for a new 26-story office tower that will sit at the corner of Broadway and Kettner in Downtown.

When it comes to assisting nonprofits, Hughes helps organize the company’s annual Christmas Gift Drive for the Polinsky Children’s Center — last year’s brought in more than 4,000 gifts — and hosts a golf tournament that raises more than $100,000 for the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation.

Successes with growing a business, starting a new one, building playhouses and working with a charity aside, Hughes has learned he just can’t do everything. While on vacation last month he took his two sons fly fishing. The first two days they caught nothing; the third was a bonanza. “I hired a guide,” he says laughing.