Building: From Shanghai To Seaport Village, Developer Takes on The Big Jobs

By Ray Huard, San Diego Business Journal

Yehudi “Gaf” Gaffen likes to fish and hunt.
When he hunts, he uses a bow and arrow instead of a gun.

When he fishes, he does a particularly difficult form of fly fishing.

As a younger man, he ran marathons. “I was running 100 miles a week,” Gaffen said. Friends and business associates said that need to challenge himself is typical, illustrated perhaps in that Gaffen is involved in two major projects on opposite sides of the planet.

He and his partners in Protea Waterfront Development are developers of the $1.2 billon redevelopment of a 70-acre portion of San Diego’s waterfront that includes Seaport Village. His project management firm, Gafcon, also is overseeing the development of a sprawling waterfront site in China along the Huangpu River spanning five square miles. The project is estimated to cost more than $7 billion.

Gaffen sees the San Diego Seaport project as his legacy, and also the most complex project he’s ever undertaken, although it’s smaller than the development in Shanghai.

Read the full story online at gafcon.com.
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