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Beginning in the mid-1990s, Kevin Daves transformed luxury real estate in Sarasota with a pair of unconventional projects and unorthodox views on development.
First came the $200 million Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, a lodging and residential project anchored downtown that few believed the Wichita, Kan.-based architect could pull off. Critics chided it for being located miles away from area beaches where upscale hotels typically had been built — and scoffed at the idea that anyone would want to buy a seven-figure condominium attached to a hotel.
That naysaying continued right up until the Ritz-Carlton's downtown residences sold out in record time, and for then-record prices — kicking off a wave of residential interest in the city.
“I've learned the biggest lie in real estate is location, location, location,” says Daves, 61. “It's all about timing, timing, timing. I can show you the best sites where projects didn't work, but good timing always works.”
In time, Daves and partner SLAB LLC would add a luxury golf course, beach club on Lido Key, spa and other amenities to the resort.
Buoyed by that success -- despite the hotel's opening just months after the terror attacks of 9/11 shut down U.S. air travel and pushed the nation's economy into recession — Daves' Core Development Inc. focused on a more traditional suburban residential development.
In 2003, Daves' Concession Golf Club & Residences community aimed to do for luxury housing what the Ritz-Carlton did for Southwest Florida lodging.
As with the resort, critics said the $600 million Concession was doomed to failure, primarily because the community's Jack Nicklaus-designed core golf course and six-figure home lots -- the 1,250-acre gated community is located at the end of University Parkway, miles east of Lakewood Ranch — was too isolated.
But where others saw isolation, Daves saw exclusivity. In 2006, as Daves was preparing to construct an opulent course clubhouse, Golf Digest magazine named it the best new links in the nation.
That same year, Daves triumphed in a Sarasota Circuit Court lawsuit brought against SLAB. The jury's $44 million judgment in Daves' favor was among the top financial awards of the year in the U.S. The two sides settled for an undisclosed amount the following year.
Not surprisingly, Concession sales faltered during the recession of 2008. Lawsuits with lenders ensued. Daves abandoned a planned equestrian-themed Ritz-Carlton development outside Charleston, S.C., and other projects.
But when area housing rebounded, so did the Concession. With partner Vanguard Land, a company owned by former Taylor Woodrow N.A. CEO John Peshkin, Daves resurrected sales.
Today, Concession's hundreds of once-available lots are almost all sold, prompting Daves to turn his sites to plan a new hospitality project in a familiar spot: downtown Sarasota.
Together with a Canadian developer, Daves hopes to construct a 200-room hotel appealing to younger travelers, and 40 residences atop it.
As before, Daves' planned 18-story project has drawn fire from those who note nearly 400 new hotel rooms are under construction downtown and another 700 — including the Marriott — are planned.
Perhaps because of his past, Daves, who expects the glass-skinned hotel to open in either late 2017 or early 2018, remains undaunted.
“Marriott is doing some extremely cool, different things with its new hotels,” he says. “And even with the construction in Sarasota, there are fewer hotel rooms than when we started the Ritz-Carlton.”
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