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R. Donahue Peebles
Roy Donahue "Don" Peebles (born March 2, 1960) is an American real estate millionaire.[3] Peebles is the founder, chairman, and CEO of The Peebles Corporation (TPC), a privately held real estate investment and development company he established in 1983. According to Forbes, Peebles is one of the most successful African American CEOs,[4] whose majority projects are executed through public-private partnerships.[5] In May 2009, Forbes listed Peebles in the top ten of the wealthiest black Americans,[6] and in January 2015 it estimated his net worth to be over $700 million.[7] In April 2015, Black Enterprise named Peebles as one of the "Business Trailblazers and Titans of Black America: 40 most powerful African Americans in business".[8] BackgroundPeebles was born in Washington, D.C. to Ruth Yvonne Willoughby and Roy Donahue Peebles, Sr.[9] Peebles and his mother, a real estate professional, relocated to Detroit, MI when he was eight years old. At the age of 13, Peebles and his mother returned to DC where he completed high school at The Congressional Page High School while serving as a congressional page in the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill. During this time, he was an intern for two members of Congress and also worked as a staff aide for another Congressional member.[10] He attended Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey where he studied pre-medicine.[5] His grandfather was a doorman at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel[11] in Washington, D.C. He has said that assisting his father as a car mechanic while still a child contributed to his strong work ethic.[12] CareerOn January 9, 1983, at the age of 23, Peebles opened his own residential and commercial real estate appraisal firm. Later that year, Mayor Marion Barry appointed him to Washington's real estate tax appeals board, the Board of Equalization and Review, now known as the Board of Real Property Assessments and Appeals. The following year, Mayor Barry appointed him Chairperson of the board[13] where he served until 1988. In 1986, a Peebles-led partnership acquired the site for his first commercial real estate development project.[5] Through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the District of Columbia, Peebles delivered his first-Class A building in 1989.[14] In 1990, he founded RDP Assessment Appeals Services, a Washington-based commercial tax assessment appeals firm. He continued to acquire commercial buildings and development sites, primarily throughs PPPs in Washington, D.C. throughout the 1990s, including 10 G Street NE, 59 M Street, and the Courtyard by Marriott Convention Center Hotel. In 1996, Peebles won the development rights to the 1930s Royal Palm Hotel in Miami Beach. This landmark deal distinguished Peebles as the nation's first African American to own and develop a major hotel. He sold The Royal Palm Hotel in December 2004 for $127.5 million.[15] In 1999, Peebles purchased The Bath Club, an exclusive social club opened in 1926, after becoming the first black member in 1996.[16] Peebles built a luxury residential tower on the site of the club's former parking lot and tennis courts and preserved the historic clubhouse. The project was completed in 2005.[17][18] The Bath Club site expands 5 acres, plus 3 acres of beach, including 540 feet of beachfront along the Atlantic Ocean, as well as 20,000 feet of indoor and outdoor private event space, a spa, a fitness center, two clay tennis courts, and a fine dining restaurant-lounge. Following a $9 million renovation in 2020, The Bath Club remains one of Miami's most exclusive members-only clubs.[16][19][20] In 2010, Peebles' company was sued by the D.C. Attorney General for alleged billing issues. Peebles maintained the charges were politically motivated due to his opposition to then Mayor Adrian Fenty's failed re-election bid earlier that year. The court dismissed most of the claims against Peebles.[21] The suit was settled in 2012 for $120,000, a fraction of the initial claim. The court accepted the settlement, and dismissed the over-billing claims as moot.[22] After four years of negotiations with Broward County to build a convention center hotel, Peebles was unable to come to terms with the county and filed a lawsuit against the county for costs and the project was in litigation until 2012.[23] His partnership with Barron Channer to redevelop the Overtown Gateway sites in Miami was cancelled by the City of Miami.[24] In the aftermath, the joint venture filed a lawsuit and it is currently being appealed. Peebles remains involved in the area and helped build CARE Elementary School in Overtown.[25] He is an active speaker at the school and works with organizations like the NBA to bring more attention and resources to this highly successful school.[26] He formed a joint venture with MGM Grand and Harbinger Capital in response to an RFP for the Aqueduct Casino in New York.[27] There were ten bidders overall and a non US, Malaysian firm was chosen. There existed public scrutiny relating to the manner in which then Governor David Patterson and state legislators managed the entire bidding process.[28] In 2014, he, along with development partners, responded to a Request for Proposal to redevelop the LICH hospital site, but were unable to come to terms on the deal. Peebles alleged the site was environmentally uncertain and SUNY stopped negotiating with the partnership.[29] After years of negotiations with the Washington, DC agencies to transform an abandoned parcel in the Mount Vernon Triangle[30] into a luxury hotel and condominiums, Peebles and his development partner were unable to move forward with the project. Peebles did deliver on his promise to provide an affordable housing component as a term of the initial proposal. The affordable housing development, 17 Mississippi, held its ribbon cutting ceremony on June 14th, 2023.[31] Peebles contract at 1801 Vine Street, a proposed luxury boutique hotel in Philadelphia's historic Family Court Building, was cancelled in November 2020 by the City of Philadelphia. The City cited larger economic trends which caused Peebles' inability to begin construction.[32] He submitted a proposal to the City of New York to build the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.[33] It is slated to be the first skyscraper in the world to be built by a majority black development team and a black contractor. He proposed building Affirmation Tower as a symbol of America's promise of equal opportunity for all. Affirmation Tower has received extensive media coverage and overwhelming local and national support from citizens, community, and political leaders.[34] As a result of the transition from the administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo to Governor Kathy Hochul, the state cancelled the solicitation in December 2021.[35] The RFP has since been reissued and the decision is pending.[36] In 2022, Peebles pledged 50,000 square feet of space at the base of the tower to house Rev. Al Sharpton's planned National Civil Rights Museum. A home for the NAACP was also a part of Peebles' bid. He said his team is planning to resubmit their bid when the new solicitation is issued.[37] In October 2022, he entered into a joint venture with Bankhead MARTA development project. Peebles is to redevelop 3.8 acres of land along with air-rights above the Bankhead MARTA rail station, as a mixed-use transit-oriented community including approximately 490+ multi-family housing units. The concept also includes retail, hotel, office, parking, and open spaces.[38][39] His ongoing development projects, most of which are PPPs, include 108 Leonard Street (a.k.a. 346 Broadway), a joint venture with El-Ad Group,[40] consisting of luxury condominiums in Manhattan's landmarked Clocktower Building, which was completed in 2020;[41] Angels Landing in Los Angeles;[42] and Brooklyn Village in Charlotte, North Carolina,[43] where demolition and site work began in September 2023.[44] As master developer of the Charlotte site, Peebles will develop some of the parcels and sell others to third party developers.[45] Peebles also has projects in various stages of development in Boston and Atlanta.[46][47] Awards & honors
Politics and affiliationsPeebles has been politically engaged since the 1970s. He served on President Bill Clinton's national finance committee during the 1992 presidential race,[5] joined his Economic Summit in Arkansas that same year, and has hosted President Clinton at his homes on several occasions. He was a member of President Barack Obama's National Finance Committee for the President's 2008 election and his 2012 reelection campaign.[52] In May 2008, Peebles hosted then Senator Obama for a campaign fundraiser at The Bath Club in Miami Beach and later hosted President Obama at the Peebles' home in Washington, D.C. for a campaign fundraiser on August 8, 2011.[53] In 2010, he announced that he had considered running to become mayor of Washington,[54] but he decided against it due to his mother-in-law's terminal illness.[55] He had also publicly considered running for Mayor of Miami and of New York City and received encouragement from many political and community leaders.[56] In 2013, he was elected vice chairman of the board of directors of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.[57] In July 2015, he was elevated to chairperson of the CBCF's board of directors and re-elected in February 2016, a role he held until February 2017. Peebles is the only non-member of Congress to be elected to the position of Chairperson of the CBCF.[58] In 2014, Mayor DeBlasio contacted Peebles for a $20,000 donation to support the mayor's universal pre-K program, UPKNYC, which is now shut down. Reportedly DeBlasio used the donation for political work and not for charitable work. When Peebles learned that the money was used for DeBlasio's political campaign, he asked for it to be returned. That same year, a Peebles-led team responded to an RFP to redevelop Long Island Community Hospital. SUNY Downstate Medical Center ended talks with Peebles over an impasse about remediation costs on May 28, 2014 and later made a deal with Fortis Property Group. According to media reports, the Peebles team's proposal was ranked higher than that of Fortis. De Blasio was under state and federal investigation for campaign finance scandals.[59][60] Peebles' advocacy for minority and women owned businesses, a more business friendly environment, and expansion of Charter Schools raised speculation[61] that he was a potential candidate to challenge de Blasio for re-election in the 2017 election cycle for the term beginning January 2018. However, Peebles did not enter the race citing wanting to teach his then 22-year-old son, a recent graduate from Columbia University, the real estate business, and to spend time with his 14-year-old daughter during her last four years at home before college.[62][63] Peebles frequently appears on CNN, Fox News, CNBC and other networks to discuss political, economic and business issues.[64] As an advocate for economic empowerment, Peebles and his wife, Katrina Peebles, have supported both parties, in various congressional, mayoral, gubernatorial, and presidential elections over the years.[65] He supports small business and minority-focused initiatives emerging from The White House with a focus on policy change rather than political affiliation.[66] Personal lifePeebles moved to Miami,[67] Florida, in 1998 and then to Coral Gables in 2001. He had homes in Coral Gables and New York City, but sold his Coral Gables house in 2021 for $13 million.[68][69] He currently lives in Miami Beach, Florida, Sag Harbor, NY and New York City with his wife Katrina, a former PR executive, whom he married in 1992.[70][71] She is an interior designer and serves as the creative director and principal of The Peebles Corporation. [72] Peebles' son, Donahue,[73] is a Columbia University graduate and is currently working at The Peebles Corporation, where he is leading the company's national development efforts,[74] His daughter, Chloe, is a Division 1 athlete, university student and a national hunt seat equestrian competitor.[75] Writing
References
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