Don Koll turned 67 last week, just after two more of his key executives (Richard Ortwein and Victor Laidlaw) decided to leave his organization to strike out on their own.
But if anyone thinks that either event is likely to slow down Koll, think again. He said he has the incurable developer’s “disease.”
“The disease is I like to build and have a lot of fun at it,” Koll said.
“You don’t see many builders retiring early or even on time,” Koll explained, pointing to fellow OCers Gen. William Lyon and the late John Lusk. “It’s just one of those things that people don’t want to get out of.”
Specifically, Koll said he still gets a kick out of taking a piece of raw land, conceptualizing what kind of product would work on that parcel, and then actually building, marketing, leasing and, eventually, selling it.
“Every project is like starting a new business,” he said.
Because of this, he says, retirement is simply not an option: ” I wouldn’t know what to do. I probably couldn’t get a job anywhere.”
And Koll figures he will have many opportunities to continue to develop property, especially given the overall economic climate in Orange County and Southern California.
“Orange County is the hottest place in the country, I think,” he said.
Given the relative strength of Orange County and the U.S. economy as a whole, Koll said he has pulled back from his activities in Mexico, where his various entities oversaw development of two resort communities, Palmilla and Cabo del Sol, in Baja California and various industrial and retail initiatives in other, interior areas of Mexico. In part, this disengagement began when Mexico devalued its currency.
“Six years ago, when they devalued the peso, the internal part of the country was so mixed up that we were going to build a shopping center that people couldn’t afford to shop at,” Koll said.
That divestment process continues. In February, Koll said, he sold his unspecified interest in Cabo del Sol to his partner. He has also sold his interests in the hotel and golf course at Palmilla, meaning his only retaining interest involves 500 acres of land surrounding the Palmilla property.
“We’ll be selling it for condos and other development,” he said.
Koll said the Orange County economy is in the midst of a seismic shift: “Now what we’re seeing is a transition to what I call the dot-comers, all this ‘new economy’ stuff. We have different employees, different companies and different attitudes.
“I was at a company the other day, and I was the only one there with a tie. And I asked the president, ‘Does anyone wear a tie?’ and he said, ‘No one here even owns a tie.’ ”
This new workforce, laid-back in appearance but certainly not in work habits, is very well educated, and will continue to be the engine that will drive the local economy, Koll said. “I think Orange County will just keep on growing, growing at a nice even way.”
In this respect, he pointed to buddy and fellow developer Donald Bren, whose Irvine Company has overseen the steady and managed growth of the largest masterplanned development in the country.
“We’ve got to be thankful that Don Bren owns that company, because he’s doing it right and everyone else has to follow that model, which is nice,” Koll said. n
