Walter and Mary Smyk in 1988, with the Meridian in the background.

The serialization of Walt Smyk’s autobiography, “The Story Of An Ordinary Boy Who Got To Do Extraordinary Things,” continues at sandiegometro. com during this 20th anniversary of the Meridian, the first luxurious condominium tower in Downtown San Diego. In Part 2 of Chapter 13, Smyk muses over how to approach CCDC a second time, having been rejected initially.

“Other than the facts that we had a relatively low net worth, we had never built residential, we’d never built a multi-story building, and our company consisted of three people, Jim (Hill), Jane (Hamilton) and me, why couldn’t we do it?

“...All I had to do was to change the CCDC mindset, borrow sixty to seventy million dollars, and build a building over 300 feet high. Piece of cake.”