- R. Donahue Peebles
R. Donahue Peebles (born
March 2 ,1960 ) An African-American hotel pioneer, and real estate developer in Washington D.C. and Miami Beach, founder, president and chief executive officer of The Peebles Corporation (formerly Peebles Atlantic Development Corporation).Donahue Peebles served as a Congressional page in 1978.
Appointed by
Marion Barry to the Washington D.C. Board of Real Property Assessment & Appeal), he became chairman in 1984 and served until 1988. In 1989, he started a highly successful commercial tax assessment appeal firm in Washington, D.C. By 1991, appealing over 400 tax assessment appeal cases annually with the highest success rate of any tax assessment appeals firms in Washington, D.C.In 1990,
Cuban-American politicians in GreaterMiami snubbedNelson Mandela by denying him an official welcoming ceremony for refusing to repudiate his longtime supporterFidel Castro . This resulted in a national boycott, 1990 to 1993, known as the "Black boycott of Miami tourism" [http://www.southfloridaceo.com/article208.html] . The settlement plan for this boycott featured the Peebles development of the now valued $140 million dollar Royal Palm Hotel, which opened in 2002, and touted at the time as largest black owned major hotel in the country.In 1998, Peebles acquired the historic Miami Beach Bath Club and developed it into a luxury condominium complex.
In 2006 Peebles purchased a former rock quarry in
Pacifica California and was chief sponsor for a ballot measure to approve rezoning the land from commercial to residential use. The Peebles vision for the development included a town center, retail and open space as well as up to 355 housng units. Opponents of the measure, a coalition of grass roots and environmental groups argued that there was no formal development plan and that much of the non-residential components were merely non-binding promises made to secure public approval for passage of the measure. Whether such a development near a sensitive environmental area could have been approved was also in doubt. Although Peebles spent close to two million dollars in an effort to win approval, the measure was defeated by a narrow margin.In Summer of 2007, Peebles talked about his new book "Peebles Principles" on Plum TV.
External links
* [http://www.peeblescorp.com/ The Peebles Corporation]
* [http://www.miaminewtimes.com/Issues/2003-02-06/news/feature_full.html Miami New Times article]
* [http://www.racematters.org/rdonahuepeebles.htm Race matters biography]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1812306.stm BBC article, Black Boycott of Miami]
* [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/11th/0416304p.pdf Appellate Court decision 12/12/05]
* [http://hamptons.plumtv.com/videos/entrepreneur_r_donahue_peebles]
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