Ken Calegari, senior v.p. of Champion Development Group, moved Downtown to oversee the renovation of two historic buildings.

Kenneth Calegari will be looking for a new Downtown home for Champion Development Group after the developer is finished renovating the historic Samuel Fox Building and the Colonel Fletcher Building on opposite corners of Sixth Avenue and Broadway.

At the moment, Champion Development is located at 531 Broadway, Suite B, where Calegari directs work on the two renovations and other projects in the county. As senior v.p. of Champion and area president for San Diego County, Calegari is responsible for overseeing all construction and entitlements for the company.

Calegari joined Champion in 2003 as director of operations. He had spent four years before that as a practicing attorney, specializing in construction and real estate litigation. Calegari worked for nine years as a senior executive for several general contracting and development firms in San Diego and Orange counties before earning a law degree in 1999 from Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

The Fox building on the southwest corner of Sixth and Broadway will have 21 live/work lofts, two office units and retail space on the ground floor — possibly a major upscale restaurant, says Calegari. Residents have started moving into some of the units. The Spanish Baroque-style building was built in 1928 by Isaac Kuhn.

The northeast corner’s Colonel Fletcher Building will have 21 live/work units and possibly a restaurant on the ground floor. Work on the building is scheduled for completion in February 2007. The building was used for a dry goods store in 1906 and housed the Sunshine Bowling Alley between 1931 and 1972. At the time it closed, the bowling alley was the oldest in the state and the last to use pin boys. It also was the last to offer billiards, archery and miniature golf.

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The Keating building is being renovated into a 35-room luxury boutique hotel.

The 116-year-old Keating building, originally built as an office building by the widow of George Keating — a Kansas farm equipment dealer — is being converted into a luxury boutique hotel by BOND Urban Habitat, a San Diego-based hospitality and real estate company, and real estate developer Edward Kaen. A soft opening is planned for October.

The building, at Fifth Avenue and F Street, was designed by the Reid Brothers, who also designed the Hotel del Coronado. The Italian design team Pininfarina was chosen as architect for the hotel design. When finished, the hotel will offer 35 expensive “stanzas” or guestrooms with high ceilings, exposed brick walls and oversized windows. Walls separating bedrooms and baths will be removed. Hotel amenities will include in-room check-in, high-definition plasma televisions, LavAzza espresso machines, high-speed Internet connection, Dornbracht bath fixtures and bathrobes.

The developers say the restoration of the Keating cost more than 10 times the original $135,000 cost of the building.

Fannie Keating, who came to San Diego with her husband two years before his death in 1888, began construction of the building as a tribute to him. The structure, built in Romanesque Revival style, had steam heat and a wire cage elevator.

Over the years, the building has been occupied by lawyers Babcock, Paterbaugh and Luce, Henry Lord Gay, founder of the American Institute of Architects, the city library and San Diego Trust & Savings Bank. The building also was used as the main office in the television series “Simon & Simon” and the ground floor was used as a restaurant opened by Ingrid Croce, widow of Jim Croce.

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The 34,316-square-foot offices of Foley & Lardner LLP in the Emerald Plaza building at 402 W. Broadway are undergoing $2.5 million in improvements by Johnson & Jennings General Contracting. Floors 21 through 23 and part of the 19th floor will be gutted and rebuilt as part of the work. The improvements will include a 24-hour computer center; an architectural stairway connecting the 21st and 22nd floors and a multi-purpose conference center. The buildout incorporates extensive use of stone flooring; glass doors; fabric wall panels; and flat-cut, brown elm millwork.

Jim Lohnes is serving as project manager for Johnson & Jennings, with Steve Erickson as onsite superintendent and Ian Becker as project engineer. Maggie Mandel of Cherry & Mandel is the construction manager, and DMJM Rottet is the architect. Subcontractors are Bergelectric, Control Air, KMP Plumbing, Wageman Co., Towne Construction, McBride Door & Hardware and Spooner’s Millwork.

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Richard Walker’s Pancake House has opened at 520 Front St. serving griddle cakes, crepes, omelets and other specialties. “With the exciting revival of Downtown and the new residents and businesses that are making the area their home, I thought a family-owned pancake house would help fill a current void in the community,” says Walker, a second-generation owner. The company originated in the Chicago suburbs. The pancake house is open for breakfast and lunch every day from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The Downtown Relocations column features news on firms that are abandoning, embracing or expanding in the 92101 ZIP code. Send submissions to Manny Cruz, manny@sandiegometro.com.