San Diego Business Journal

DEVELOPMENT: Chelsea Investment Corporation CEO is a quiet giant

■ By RAY HUARD

Charles Schmid, the new CEO of Chelsea Investment Corp., is an avid sports fisherman, who is equally at home landing giant fish he’s caught on the open sea or wading in a small stream fly-fishing.

He’s a dog lover, who has both some of the biggest dogs you can find – Great Danes and Neapolitan Mastiffs – and some of the smallest.

His current menagerie includes a 150-pound Great Dane named Odin, a 30-pound French Bulldog named Ruby, and a 5-pound Pomeranian named Olaf, who “runs the show” at home, as Schmid tells it.

“It’s kind of funny to see him walk in every once in a while, with that little poofy dog when you’ve seen him with a giant mastiff,” said Janice Patterson, who was director of construction at Emmerson Construction, an affiliate of Chelsea Investment headed by Schmid.

At 6 feet 3 inches tall, with a full beard, Schmid is an imposing figure.

“I would call him the quiet giant,” said Patterson, who officially retired in January but still works with the company as director of special projects. “He’s definitely to me one of my most cherished employers.”

In April, Charles Schmid succeeded his father, Jim Schmid, as CEO of Chelsea Investment, a Carlsbad-based affordable housing developer that Jim Schmid founded in 1984. Schmid will continue on as chairman of the board.

A graduate of the University of California San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in literature, Charles Schmid is also president of Emmerson Construction.

“I was going to go to law school, but there were thousands of unemployed lawyers at the time,” Schmid said. “I figured I would be last in line to get a lawyer's job, so I went to work at the family business, and I've been here ever since.”

Quiet Presence

Schmid said that he took an entry-level position “and I've done every function there is to do in the organization and started the construction company about 20 years ago.”

In high school, Schmid said that he thought he'd have a career in the sciences but became interested in law because he admired his father, who was a lawyer in addition to being the founder of Chelsea Investment.

Schmid spent half his junior year and half his senior year in high school working on a New Zealand farm as part of an exchange program.

“I milked cows by hand before school every day,” Schmid said, a skill that's stayed with him. “You get the muscle memory.”

Schmid said he started fishing as a child in small creeks in La Costa because there wasn't much else to do.

These days, he goes on deep sea fishing trips that can last several days.

He said his most exciting catch was a 279-pound swordfish off the Coronado Islands that took seven hours and 10 minutes to get into the boat.

“It was very rewarding, and I'll never forget it,” Schmid said.

Patterson said Schmid's love of fishing and the outdoors in general “is kind of a charming part of him” that gives him a connection with the field workers for Emmerson.

In the office, Schmid is “forceful and assertive when it comes to the management of the company in a very positive way, a very encouraging way with his leadership team,” Patterson said, adding that, “He's soft-spoken, in a way, but at the same time, he's quite a presence.”

When Schmid meets with the people who live in the developments that Chelsea builds, “He's very respectful,” Patterson said. “You can see the empathy.”

Next Generation

Bill Hedenkamp, a fishing friend, and founder of Hedenkamp Architecture & Planning, described Schmid as “a caring and giving guy.” Schmid is gregarious with friends, but “kind of reserved” with others, Hedenkamp said.

“Charles really cares about the people he works with, and he cares about people in general,” Hedenkamp added. “If you ask him for help, he'll give it to you. I don't hear him say a bad word about anybody.”

Hedenkamp said that he encouraged Schmid to get his contractor's license so that Chelsea could form its own contracting company – Emmerson Construction -rather than rely on other general contractors on its projects.

“He's done a great job running that and building it into a real growing concern,” Hedenkamp said. “He's really built a crew of good people on the construction site and I'm glad to see that he's moving up.”

Schmid has two children, a 23-year-old stepdaughter who is a planner at SANDAG (San Diego Association of Governments), and a 4-year-old son with his wife, Athena.

Schmid said that he doesn't plan to make any changes at Chelsea Investment and plans to focus on succession planning.

“It's a goal of mine to prepare the next generation of leaders here, to carry on the business and continue to provide the housing,” Schmid said. “It's a specialized business and it takes some seasoning.” ■

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2023-05-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

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