Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Is there a patent on The Villages lifestyle?
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Old 06-14-2023, 06:22 AM
spinner1001 spinner1001 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eeroger View Post
Part of the reason is The Morse family has stayed in control of everything. Other developers stay for a short time and then move on. Del Web turns over the management to the homeowners who do not have the resources to keep up the "expensive" lifestyle. This happened to my parents in the 1990's at Sun City West, AZ. The golf courses went downhill and so did maintenance of rec centers, etc after Del Web moved on.
That factor is crucial to the success of TV. The developer here is a family business that apparently have wanted to keep it a family business rather than sell it to someone looking mostly for ROI (return on investment). Very successful family businesses tend to focus on years into the future in creating family wealth rather than earnings per share over next calendar quarter or two.

In contrast, Del Webb, for example, has not been a family business for decades. It went public in 1960 on the New York Stock Exchange, later bought by Pulte, who later merged with Centex, and the current company trades on the New York Stock Exchange. I believe it would be very difficult for a company like Del Webb to build, for example, a Middleton-type community, a huge and risky investment, because their board of directors would be worried about the effect on their stock price and bonuses. A family business doesn’t need to worry about public stockholders and Wall Street equity analysts.