Leaders in Business and Government to Help Advance CBCF’s Mission and Growth

WASHINGTON—The Board of Directors of Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Incorporated (CBCF) has appointed new officers and elected five new members at its Annual Meeting in February.

Four distinguished individuals at the pinnacle of government, private business and global media will serve as officers of the CBCF’s Board of Directors. Mr. R. Donahue Peebles, chairman and chief executive officer, The Peebles Corporation was appointed chair, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, vice chair. Mr. Earle Jones, senior director of government affairs, Comcast, NBC Universal and Ms. Cathy Hughes, founder and chairperson, Radio One, will serve as secretary and treasurer, respectively.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, Janice Bryant Howroyd of the Act 1 Group, Rep. Brenda L. Lawrence, and Sharon C. Taylor of the Prudential Foundation were among the new directors approved by the Board. The directors represent a diverse set of expertise and backgrounds, from Fortune 500 companies to Congress.

“I am humbled to have been entrusted to lead the board of directors,” said R. Donahue Peebles, the newly elected chair of the CBCF board of directors. “I look forward to working with new and current members to build on the momentum the foundation has established as a prominent voice on public policy issues affecting African Americans.”

The new directors join the CBCF at a time of exponential growth with the expansion of the Leadership Institute education programs, the Executive Economic Summit series, and the Center for Policy Analysis and Research New Horizon Initiatives.

“Each new member of our board brings a wealth of public policy, business, and financial acumen from successful careers and service in government, Congress, and more,” said A. Shuanise Washington, president and CEO of the CBCF. “We look for exceptional individuals to strengthen our board’s expertise, and we are confident that our newly elected officers and directors will make significant contributions to the CBCF.”

The new officers of the CBCF board of directors are as follows:

Mr. R. Donahue Peebles is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of The Peebles Corporation, one of the country’s few national privately held real estate investment and development companies with a multi-billion dollar portfolio of projects in New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, Miami and Miami Beach.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee returned to the board in 2015, after serving for three years previously in from 2010 – 2013. Jackson Lee is also serving her eleventh term as a member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Texas. She is currently a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Earle Jones is the senior director, federal government affairs at Comcast NBCUniversal in Washington D.C. Jones has served in the cable telecommunications industry for more than 25 years. He is a member of the Comcast Federal Affairs Legislative team that successfully obtained federal regulatory approval for the Comcast/General Electric acquisition of NBCUniversal in January 2011.

Ms. Cathy Hughes is the founder and chairperson of Radio One. Inc., the largest African-American owned and operated broadcast company in the nation. It is the first African-American company in radio history to dominate several major markets simultaneously. Cathy Hughes is the first and only African-American woman to chair a publicly held corporation.

The new board members are as follows:

Rep. Joyce Beatty is serving her second term representing the 3rd Congressional District of Ohio. She serves on the Committee on Financial Services and is member of the Housing and Insurance and Oversight and Investigations subcommittees.

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings is serving his 12th term representing Florida’s 20th District. He is the Senior Democratic Whip, and a senior member on the House Rules Committee. He is also Co-Chairman of the Congressional Everglades Caucus and Co-Chairman of the Florida Delegation.

Janice Bryant Howroyd is the founder and CEO of the Act 1 Group, a multi-billion-dollar workforce solutions enterprise, which operates in 19 countries. In 2015, she received the Southern California Minority Supplier Development Council’s (SCMSDC) Leadership Excellence Award.

Rep. Brenda L. Lawrence is a Ranking Member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on the Interior and a member on the House Committee on Small Business. She also serves on the Subcommittee on National Security; Agriculture, Energy, and Trade; and Contracting and Workforce.

Sharon C. Taylor is senior vice president, human resources, and chair of The Prudential Foundation. She is responsible for the oversight of Prudential’s Office of Corporate Social Responsibility and chairs both the Human Resources Policy and Investment Oversight Committees. She is a founding member of the company’s Black Leadership Forum.

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ABOUT THE CBCF:
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Incorporated, established in 1976, is a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy, research and educational institute intended to broaden and elevate the influence of African Americans in the political, legislative and public policy arenas.

https://www.cbcfinc.org/new-board-2016/

By Damian Ghigliotty

Roy Donahue “Don” Peebles is getting ready to seal the deal on a $334 million construction loan from Bank of America to finance the conversion of 108 Leonard Street in Tribeca, Manhattan into luxury condominiums.

The financing is expected to close on Jan. 8, two people familiar with the matter told Commercial Observer.

The Peebles Corporation acquired the late 19th-century landmark—the single largest building ever sold by the City of New York—for $160 million in December 2013, according to one source with intimate knowledge of the deal. Goldman Sachs provided acquisition financing to Peebles for the purchase, public records show.

The developer later teamed up with the Israeli-based American real estate company Elad Group for the conversion project and tapped the international architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle to lead the design efforts.

“Tribeca was one of the hottest markets in the city even back in 2012,” Mr. Peebles told CO in regards to the project in a November 2015 interview. “It was one of the early markets to recover and Downtown was very hot.”

The 419,000-square-foot property had once served as the headquarters of New York Life Insurance Company and more recently housed New York City Criminal Court.

Redevelopment plans for the 13-story building call for 151 new residential condo units, according to records filed with the New York City Department of Buildingsin July 2015.

The conversion of the landmarked building, which has an alternate address of 346 Broadway, will also include a 7,210-square-foot community facility and about 2,200 square feet of commercial space. Peebles and Elad had plans to include a boutique hotel in the building, but no details about the hotel appeared in the developers’ most recent filings with the DOB.

The project marks Mr. Peebles’ only active development in New York City.

Jordan Casella, a senior vice president on Bank of America’s commercial real estate banking team for the New York and New Jersey markets, led the $334 million construction loan on behalf of the lender, according to one of the two sources.

A representative for Bank of America declined to comment. Mr. Peebles could not be reached for comment in time for publication.

Danielle Balbi and Liam La Guerre contributed reporting for this story.

https://commercialobserver.com/2016/01/don-peebles-scores-334m-construction-loan-for-108-leonard-conversion/

by Chloe Sorvino - Forbes Staff

Don Peebles is already one of the most successful African American CEOs in the country, but his recent building spree has put him one step closer to becoming a billionaire.

Forbes now estimates that his net worth is more than $700 million – and with several nine-figure developments underway, his fortune could very well keep going up.  Peebles, 54, says he’s built up his six million square foot portfolio by picking deals that transform and open up opportunities. He’s known for weaving in $10 million and up apartments alongside redevelopment projects in some of the most impoverished areas in cities across the Eastern seaboard.

“The projects we tend to be attracted to are those that have greater impact, greater symbolism,” Peebles said. “Our number one focus is that our buildings are vehicles or symbols of opportunity. Our goal is to develop projects that transform communities.”

The son of a car mechanic, Peebles grew up in D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood until age 5, which is now a rapidly gentrifying area. After his parents divorced, he moved briefly with his mom to Detroit before they came back to D.C. for good. It was then that he began volunteering for political campaigns and working as a page on Capitol Hill during high school. Peebles said long-serving D.C. mayor Marion Barry mentored him, and at the age of 24, Barry appointed him as the city’s chairman of the real estate tax appeals board.

In 1987, the Rutgers University drop-out began working on his first project in the down-and-out D.C. neighborhood of Anacostia, a development he said was necessary to revive “once a thriving commercial quarter destroyed by the 1968 riots.”

Peebles announced he was exploring a bid for D.C. mayor in 2009 before dropping out to support his wife after his mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer. He currently serves as the vice chairman of the board of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Board of Directors and is a member of President Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee.

He’ll likely be on a ballot somewhere soon. Peebles said he wants “another challenge” and with personal residences in New York, Washington D.C. and Miami, he has options.

“Mayor of New York sounds like an interesting job. So does Mayor of Washington, D.C.,” he said.

His company's recent building boom has kept him busy, though. His Peebles Corporation secured the bid for its first project in Boston, a $330 million contract to develop a hotel, condo and retail corridor connecting the Berklee and Fenway communities with Newbury Street. The contract, announced earlier this month, marks the company’s second-largest deal in its history. The biggest is a joint condo and retail project at 108 Leonard Street in New York City's Tribeca.

The company’s focus on working in cities lends well to developing both luxury and affordable projects, and his company has recently tripled the space in its New York office – a city with one of the world’s largest wealth divides. What’s pushing him, he said, is shrinking the wealth gap by providing greater access to opportunity, and says his company focuses on helping women and minorities.

“I attribute my success to access to opportunity,” Peebles said. “The status quo is not a sustainable situation for businesses. It’s in our interest as entrepreneurs to provide greater access to opportunity.”

The most blatant example of that is his 1998 acquisition of Miami’s prestigious Bath Club. Two years before buying it, he was the first African American member to gain admittance to the exclusive social scene.

“I found the purchase of it somewhat ironic. It was a club that didn’t allow African American or Jewish members. The fact that I was able to buy it sent a message at the time of how far Miami had come as a city,” he recalled.

Now, he’s building an intimate, 13-residence property, dubbed The Bath Club Estates, as an expansion of that landmark deal. With apartments that will range in price from $10 million to $50 million, the property even boasts a three-story penthouse, one that Peebles said they designed with the goal of building “the best penthouse in Miami Beach.”

That luxury property, which is scheduled to be completed in 2016, is worlds apart from the redevelopment project in Miami's Overtown neighborhood that his company will be breaking ground on soon. He said he hopes to transform the combined 3 million square feet with office, retail and condo space, helping to lift the community out of poverty.

The Peebles Corporation is also currently courting other potential developments in high-profile areas, including Times Square, Chelsea’s technology corridor in New York and downtown D.C.

Jack McCabe, a Florida-based real estate analyst at McCabe Research & Consulting, said the company has very few competitors of the size which have as big a range in the types of properties they build, from neighborhood redevelopments, hotels, high-end office space, historic projects and luxury condos.

“He basically just picks what he likes,” McCabe said. "It's usually these entrepreneurial companies that are successful in producing a diversified portfolio that you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2015/01/27/successful-african-american-real-estate-mogul-inches-closer-to-billionaire-status/#2de4562a7fc5