Al Baldwin’s idea of fun is helicopter skiing or hunting big game with a bow and arrow.
His adventurous nature works to his advantage in his day job.
In his 60s, Baldwin is a veteran Orange County developer and homebuilder. Some of his current projects include developments at Otay Ranch in Chula Vista and Portola Hills in Lake Forest.
His past projects include Summit of Anaheim Hills and Carmel del Mar in San Diego.
Baldwin has been in the business for more than 40 years. First with dad Noel Baldwin—a former mailman turned chicken rancher, turned homebuilder—then with brother Jim Baldwin.
Now he works with his three sons.
Baldwin owns Newport Beach developer Baldwin & Sons LLC with sons Shawn, Steve and Ron.
The sons each run separate homebuilding companies.
Shawn is a partner with Randall Bone—married to Baldwin’s daughter Allison—in Newport Beach’s Sunrise Co. Sunrise and Baldwin & Sons share an office.
Ron owns San Diego’s Pacific Coast Communities. Steve has San Diego-based Heritage Building & Development.
“To be successful at this business you have to be a risk taker,” Baldwin said. “But you have to quantify the risk. Otherwise the falls can be hard.”
Baldwin knows about hard falls.
In the 1990s, he and brother Jim were big homebuilders here. Their Newport Beach-based Baldwin Co. filed for bankruptcy in 1995.
While still linked in the minds of many here, the brothers split their remaining business interests and set up separate companies after the demise of Baldwin Co.
The brothers have interests in some of the same developments—including Otay Ranch and Portola Hills—but haven’t been business partners for a decade or more.
The split was amicable and came down to differing business styles and a desire of each brother to work with their kids, according to a source close to the Baldwins.
(Jim Baldwin made news late last year for a legal fight he’s in over a loan from Broadcom Corp. cofounder Henry “Nick” Nicholas.)
Land
Al Baldwin’s company owns 2,000 acres in San Diego and 100 acres in OC. The land has room for about 4,000 houses or condominiums and is in various stages of development.
Baldwin plans to build roughly 300 homes in Lake Forest near the former El Toro Marine base starting in 2012.
They’re expected to sell for $750,000 to $1 million
The company builds most of the homes on its land, though it does sell some lots to other homebuilders.
“I’m a firm believer in having both—the homebuilding and the land development,” Baldwin said.
Having managed through several recessions, Baldwin said he was in good shape to handle the downturn. He said he saw it coming and held off buying land.
His strategy: “Hang on to your good people, pay your overhead and wait for the market to recover.”
Baldwin & Sons employs about 100 people.
The housing market stands to be a drag on the economy for a while, he said.
“It’s going to be a crawl out,” Baldwin said.
Borrowing still is too hard to come by for many builders and buyers, he said. Banks are hesitant to lend because of economic uncertainty, according to Baldwin.
In the near term and perhaps for the longer run, Baldwin said he plans to build smaller, affordable houses and bigger homes on smaller lots.
Baldwin is in the process of rezoning larger lots at San Diego County’s Otay Ranch into smaller lots.
Rezoning is a tedious process that can take up to two years, he said.
Father
Baldwin started his work life on his father’s chicken ranch in Temple City, where there were a lot of chicken ranches.
“I used to feed 2,000 chickens a day,” he said. “I’d feed them at daybreak and after school.”
His family sold the eggs. His father also was handy with a hammer and nails.
Eventually, his father divided the chicken ranch into five lots and built homes one at a time. Then he branched out, building small subdivisions. He retired in the early 1970s.
Baldwin worked in construction while in college. He studied finance and real estate at University of Southern California on a scholarship.
He once considered being a dentist but figured real estate was more lucrative.
“Dentists get paid by the tooth,” he said.
Other Interests
These days, Baldwin is involved in the company’s daily affairs and slowly is handing over more responsibility to his sons and his son-in-law.
That frees time for other ventures.
He’s a board member of Washington D.C.-based National Park Foundation, which raises money to preserve national parks and monuments.
Baldwin is one of six people who put on the annual four-day fundraiser Stars and Stripes Fishing, Golf and Music Festival in Cabo San Lucas.
The board members, including Baldwin and Tim Ryan, chief operating officer of the Anaheim Ducks and Honda Center, put on the event.
Ryan books entertainment for the fundraiser, in its 15th year. About 700 people take part.
“We make it fun,” Baldwin said. “We call ourselves ‘the knights.’”
The event raises $2 million annually and benefits the Boy Scouts of America, Orangewood Children’s Foundation, Miracles for Kids and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Baldwin’s greatest thrill? Bow hunting.
He’s shot a polar bear and a lot of big horn sheep. He has them mounted and hangs them up on the wall of a vacation home in Wyoming. Baldwin’s primary home is in Emerald Bay.
Baldwin said he used to hunt with a rifle.
“I started losing interest,” he said. “It was too easy. It lost its challenge.”
About 25 years ago, he picked up a bow.
“To me it’s a very peaceful experience,” he said.
He hunts alone or with good friend Dick Gebhard, chair of the Stars and Stripes charity event and head of San Diego’s Pinnacle Holdings Group.
Baldwin also helps raise money for the National Parks Foundation. He was appointed to the board during the George W. Bush administration.
The foundation gave seed money for the 2009 TV miniseries, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”
Padres
Then there’s baseball. Baldwin is part of a group of investors that owns half of the San Diego Padres baseball team. Newport Beach’s Jeff Moorad is the lead investor and runs the team.
The group has the option to buy the other half of the Padres.
“It’s been a great investment,” Baldwin said.
The Padres missed the playoffs by one game last season.
There are a lot of perks to being a team owner, he said. One of which is letting his grandchildren run around the bases after games. Baldwin’s got 13 grandkids.
He’s been married to wife Deeann for 47 years.
“My whole family really enjoys going to the games,” he said. “I’m focused now on the things I enjoy doing.”
His sons do “the heavy lifting,” Baldwin said. “I’m there to help them.”
