Who owns Park Place and Boardwalk?
Alonzo Horton believed in downtown San Diego; he bought 960 acres of it. Gina Champion-Cain believes in downtown San Diego; she bought a 10,000-square-foot plot of it. Horton paid $265 for his first 800 acres. Champion-Cain paid $7.5 million for less than a quarter of an acre. What a difference 136 years makes. Horton, the founder of “New Town” San Diego, forked over 33 cents an acre for the once-barren land that’s now among the priciest real estate in the United States. Champion-Cain anted roughly $33 million an acre. Of course, her piece of downtown has been improved, somewhat. [A portion of this article has been omitted.] “I love downtowns in general,” says Champion-Cain, a 38-year-old investor who has bought and sold millions of dollars worth of downtown real estate in recent years through her company, American National Investments. “I’m an urban girl I believe if you look around the world, the heart and soul of every region is its urban core.” Apparently lots of other people feel
