Bob Mayer got his start 51 years ago remodeling kitchens and bathrooms.
“You’d get paid for it when it was done and generate cash fast,” he said.
By 1960, Robert Mayer Corp. was the largest developer of apartments in Southern California. The company financed and developed more than 25,000 homes in subsequent years, including single-family neighborhoods, condominiums and retirement homes.
The Newport Beach-based company today counts 1,000 employees. It has expanded to entitlement and zoning work and property management along with development.
|
|
In recent years, the family business was behind the Waterfront homes development in Huntington Beach, the San Sebastian condos in Laguna Woods (with Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp.) and a mixed-use project in Rancho Mirage.
The Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort and the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa also are the work of Robert Mayer.
The company received the longevity honor at the Nov. 16 Family Owned Business awards put on by the Business Journal and the Family Business Council of California State University, Fullerton.
Mayer got into the hotel business in the 1970s when he was among the first to develop extended-stay hotels with the Ambassador Inn chain.
By 1980, Mayer said he thought he was ready to enjoy the fruits of his labor and sold the company with plans to retire.
But he said he just couldn’t let go of a 50-acre oceanfront parcel in Huntington Beach.
He believed the land could be a catalyst for turning the city into a resort destination.
In the mid-1980s, Mayer teamed with longtime friend Steve Bone to bring his vision to reality.
Little did he know it would take another 25 years.
“I’ve always said this is a tough business,” he said at the awards luncheon.
Mayer’s Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort opened in 1990, just before a recession brought most commercial construction to a standstill.
The hotel struggled and went into bankruptcy. Plans for the rest of the acreage were put on hold.
“I’ve never been so proud of my partnership with the Mayer family than in the early ’90s when things weren’t going well,” said Bone, who joined Robert Mayer in 1985.
Mayer persevered through the downturn without losing his vision of creating upscale oceanfront resorts.
Neither the California Coastal Commission process nor Caltrans’ approval for a bridge over Pacific Coast Highway deterred him.
“We’ve survived the ups and downs of the Southern California economy and real estate,” Bone said. “With Bob Mayer, a handshake is better than anything lawyers can create.”
By the time the 517-room Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa opened in 2003, Huntington Beach had a revamped downtown, new businesses on the pier and a beachfront amphitheater to help bring in visitors. The hotel’s 52,000 square feet of meeting and convention space is the largest on the Orange County coast, adding to the city’s ability to draw group business.
Though 25 years have passed since Mayer first thought about retirement, he said he has no such thoughts today.
“Now I have help from the other generations,” he said.
Robert “RJ” Mayer Jr. learned the business just as his father did,from the ground up. He started out assembling land parcels for development and now is chief operating officer.
He and sister Linda Howit spearhead the company’s charitable activities through the Mayer Family Foundation.
Grandson Robert Mayer III joined the company in 1999 and was a project manager during construction of the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach.
He also supervised the renovation of the Hilton Waterfront.
He primarily works with land acquisition and entitlements.
Bone and other non-family members round out the executive team.
Mayer said that arrangement has worked well.
“They’re very important people in the organization, especially on the hotel side,” he said.
The family envisions working on more land deals and residential and commercial development for the immediate future,in part because it’s hard to find land for new hotels.
Mayer expects a mild slowdown in 2007 due to the scarcity and high cost of land. Those conditions should ease in a couple of years, he said.
“We’re prepared to jump in when that time comes,” Mayer said. n
