Don Peebles, The Peebles Corporation
Don Peebles
Chairman and CEO at The Peebles Corporation
During the last 10 months, the word “timing” seemed to be most often paired with the word “bad” when talking about new construction. So, it’s a palpable relief to hear timing for a new development that sounds sort of ideal.
Don Peebles spoke to Commercial Observer last month fresh off a conference call about the environmental impact report for Angels Landing, the $1.6 billion, two million-square-foot, mixed-use project slated to open in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and he couldn’t complain about having a project that hasn’t broken ground yet — but will in a big way in 2021.
“We’re very, very fortunate that we weren’t under construction and weren’t delivering,” Peebles said. The pandemic has “been devastating to hotel and condo projects around the country.” Being able to focus on laying the groundwork for the mega-project while the rest of the industry was reeling brings to mind the same kind of good luck that Related Companies had when they kept their head down and focused on constructing Hudson Yards during the Great Recession.
It’s more than that, though. “One of the positives of the virtual meeting is more people able to participate,” Peebles said. More voices from the community were able to voice concerns and ideas for the project.
Of course, Peebles is not merely an L.A. developer and, as massive as Angels Landing is, it’s not the only mega-project on his plate. When Peebles spoke to CO over the summer, the privately held firm had some $4 billion in projects underway nationwide.
The rest of the industry has a lot to learn from Peebles, who is one of the only developers who has taken the racial turbulence over the summer and the general lack of Black executives in the C-suite and tried to do something about it; he created a $500 million emerging developer fund that provides limited partnership capital for women and minority developers.
“I worked harder on this than any other project I’ve ever done,” Peebles said. “As it stands now, I spend a third of my time on it, but that’s what it will take. What we want is to get banks not to look at it philanthropically — because it’s a small fund. A small business line. Not as philanthropy.”—M.G.
