Catchin' the wave

Special Issue | From Jesus People to Petco Park, San Diego has prospered by not preening | Lynn Vincent

SAN DIEGO— As gazillionaires go, Mike Farres, 81, is one who likes to fly under the radar. Slim and of average build, he favors jeans with shirts of low-key plaid—nothing too fancy to go with his silvery walrus mustache. He isn't much of a talker, either. You have to listen closely to catch his breathy words, which he dispenses as though he has few to spare. Friends say Farres, who made his fortune in San Diego real estate, is even a bit of a curmudgeon.

But to survive the downtown street corner where, in the 1970s, Farres first opened the Wine Bank, a small, fine wine shop, a slight unsociability might have been a key asset.

"We had a lot of hobos coming off the trains," Farres remembers. "They were OK, not dangerous. But then we started getting a lot of druggies selling on the corners. You had to be pretty careful at night where you walked."

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March 24, 2007, Vol. 22, No. 11

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