Rich Dickerson

With more than three decades in the San Diego market, 1st Pacific Bank’s Rich Dickerson has a considerable rear-view mirror through which to view the hourly headlines on the state of the economy.

“It’s not nearly as bad as... well, there was a big recession in the ’70s,” recalls the senior vice president and veteran real estate lender. “And then there was the one in the mid-’80s, and of course, the early ’90s, which was The Biggie.”

Dickerson survived that downturn to join 1st Pacific in 2001. Although he’s based in North County, deals take him throughout the region, into Coronado, the beach areas and Riverside County. “We tend to go wherever the business is,” he says.

While many are currently focused on where the business isn’t, Dickerson says some of the daily hand-wringing may be overdone. “What we’re seeing now is mostly paranoia, mostly overreaction, a lot of anticipation about things that haven’t even happened yet,” he says. “But there’s no question that we went through an unprecedented upswing in the last eight years, so there’s a need for an adjustment and hopefully it won’t last too long.”

How long is still a matter of conjecture. Dickerson says he sees “some recovery and improvement after ’08. We will be at this for at least this year, foreclosures will have an impact and banking as a whole will see some impact as we’re seeing with major banks now.”

Dickerson says the commercial real estate market in North County is seeing higher vacancies in Carlsbad, “but overall the market here is still pretty strong,” though the area has added space in advance of the current slowdown.

Away from the office, Dickerson says he likes to kick back with his collection of more than 2,000 classical music CDs. He favors the Russian composers, including Rachmaninoff.

He also plays the piano. Does he ever imagine himself sitting in with the San Diego Symphony?

“We do have season tickets,” he says.

As far as retirement, Dickerson says he hasn’t made specific plans. “We have kids that live all over the country, so we might eventually move from San Diego, and that would be a really big change.”