Jason Hughes

On May 4, the long awaited three-story, 50,000-square-foot San Diego Children’s Museum opens Downtown. You will be impressed. It will be a Kodak moment for benefactors of all stripes. None more so than Jason Hughes, who rescued the project by keying an $8 million fundraising effort and securing a $10 million construction loan. Now this mover and former museum board president can breathe a sigh of relief. But he will hardly relax.

Along with partner Craig Irving, Hughes will continue to lead the dominant tenant representation commercial leasing company in San Diego. In Downtown it represents more than 75 percent of the tenants, including majors like Nicholas Applegate, Procopio Cory, Higgs Fletcher, CCDC and American Specialty Health. With several large commercial office buildings in the planning hopper — Pacific Gateway and Irvine chief among them — look for Hughes to play a key role as those developers seek to lock up their all-important pre-leasing.

Very little happens in commercial real estate Downtown without Hughes’ involvement. You can bet that he will be pulling strings one way or another with any significant project or deal.

Hughes also will play an active role in helping steer his firm’s significant charitable efforts, which to date include donating more than $250,000 to the Children’s Museum and $100,000 to The Old Globe, and assistance in raising or directing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation, Voices for Children, the San Diego Police Foundation, American Heart Association and others throughout the region.