Hospitality Design - November 2015 - 85

PERSPECTIVES INTERVIEW

Photos of Peebles and Champalimaud by Jeffrey Mosier

DON PEEBLES

MAN OF P∏OPE∏TY
Lessons from a real estate entrepreneur

R. Donahue "Don" Peebles is founder, chairman,
and CEO of the Peebles Corporation, the
largest African American-owned real estate
development company in the U.S. Its portfolio
includes hospitality properties such as the Bath
Club and Royal Palm South Beach in Miami
and Courtyard by Marriott Convention Center in
Washington, DC; high-end residential buildings;
and mixed-use and commercial real estate.
Peebles sat for a wide-ranging interview-
from the magic of hotels to personal heroes
and his mayoral aspirations-with Alexandra
Champalimaud in his New York office in
October.

Alexandra Champalimaud: You originally
studied to be a doctor.
Don Peebles: I went into pre-med at Rutgers

University. I was going to emulate my uncle,
a physician. After my first year, I decided I
wanted to be an entrepreneur. I worked with
my uncle in his medical office while I was
in school, and saw the enormous amount of
paperwork and other elements that went along
with practicing medicine, and how the insurance
companies were beginning to dictate medical
and healthcare. So I quit school, went back to
Washington, DC, and started my real estate
career. That was 1979 and interest rates were 20
percent or so. Jimmy Carter was president, and
we were in a recession. We had already had an oil
crisis and an oil embargo. The country was at a
difficult point. But I was optimistic and became a
real estate sales agent.
For my first development deal [for office
space in DC], I brought in an investment group
of three individuals as partners and they put up
the vast majority of the money. And I did the vast
majority of the work. I delivered that building [in
1989-I was 29], and I still own it.

AC: What type of development most
propels you?
DP: I've always tried to do projects that are more

transformative. They're either geared toward
igniting economic redevelopment-like our first
building-or when I went to South Beach, which
was still kind of tired and run down. I got there
early and did something very significant. I was

1. Champalimaud and
Peebles meet for a oneon-one talk at the Peebles
Corporation's office in
Midtown Manhattan.

always attracted to historic buildings.
The developments we do tend to be unique. I
like to incorporate design that is compatible with
the environment, and I think that's probably one
of the areas where I've grown over the years-to
be more against the grain. I tend to be a little
more daring in the architecture and on the design
as well.

AC: When you pick your designer, your
architect-what are you looking for?
DP: I'm really not a master of anything other

than making deals. So I try to bring in talented
people where there's compatibility, give them a
sense of the vision of where I see our building,

and then let the team create. It doesn't make
sense to bring in talented people and then either
restrict or direct them.

AC: You inspire them.
DP: Inspire them and give them the freedom

and the autonomy to design something that's
unique and special. My view is that talented
firms are going to be mindful of the economics if
we lay that out to them in the front end. Through
trial and error, my management style is to have
good people and not micromanage them. I give
them the autonomy to execute and to learn and
develop better skills.

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