R. Donahue Peebles

Peebles contract at 1801 Vine Street, a proposed luxury boutique hotel in Philadelphia's historic Family Court Building, was cancelled in November 2020 by the City of Philadelphia.

The City cited larger economic trends which caused Peebles’ inability to begin construction.

Peebles partnership with Barron Channer to redevelop the Overtown Gateway sites in Miami was cancelled by the City of Miami.

In the aftermath, the joint venture filed a lawsuit and it is currently being appealed.

Peebles remains involved in the area and helped build CARE Elementary School in Overtown.

He is an active speaker at the school and works with organizations like the NBA to bring more attention and resources to this highly successful school.

Peebles submitted an RFP to the City of New York to build the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

It is slated to be the first skyscraper in the world to be built by a majority black development team, a renowned black architect, Sir Adjay, and a black contractor.

He proposed building Affirmation Tower as a symbol of America’s promise of equal opportunity for all.

Roy Donahue "Don" Peebles (born March 2, 1960) is an American millionaire, real estate entrepreneur, author, national media commentator and political leader.

Peebles is the founder, Chairman/CEO of The Peebles Corporation (TPC), a privately held real estate investment and development company he established in 1983.

According to Forbes, Peebles is one of the most successful African American CEOs, whose majority projects are executed through public-private partnerships.

On January 9, 1983, at the age of 23, Peebles opened his own residential and commercial real estate appraisal firm.

Later that year, Mayor Marion Barry appointed him to Washington's real estate tax appeals board, the Board of Equalization and Review, now known as the Board of Real Property Assessments and Appeals.

In 1986, a Peebles-led partnership acquired the site for his first commercial real estate development project.

The following year, Mayor Barry appointed him Chairperson of the board where he served until 1988.

Through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the District of Columbia, Peebles delivered his first-Class A building in 1989.

In 1990, Peebles founded RDP Assessment Appeals Services, a Washington-based commercial tax assessment appeals firm.

He continued to acquire commercial buildings and development sites, primarily throughs PPPs in Washington, DC throughout the 1990s, including 10 G Street NE, 59 M Street, and the Courtyard by Marriott Convention Center Hotel.

In 1996, Peebles won the development rights to the 1930s Royal Palm Hotel in Miami Beach.

This landmark deal distinguished Peebles as the nation's first African American to own and develop a major hotel.

He sold The Royal Palm Hotel in December 2004 for $127.5 million.

In May 2009, Forbes listed Peebles in the top ten of the wealthiest black Americans, and in January 2015 it estimated his net worth to be over $700 million.

In 2010, Peebles’ company was sued by the D.C. Attorney General for alleged billing issues.

Peebles maintained the charges were politically motivated due to his opposition to then Mayor Adrian Fenty’s failed re-election bid earlier that year.

The court dismissed most of the claims against Peebles.

The suit was settled in 2012 for $120,000, a fraction of the initial claim.

The court accepted the settlement, and dismissed the over-billing claims as moot.

After four years of negotiations with Broward County to build a convention center hotel, Peebles was unable to come to terms with the county and filed a lawsuit against the county for costs and the project was in litigation until 2012.

In 2014, Peebles, along with development partners, responded to a Request for Proposal to redevelop the LICH hospital site, but were unable to come to terms on the deal.

Peebles alleged the site was environmentally uncertain and SUNY stopped negotiating with the partnership.

After years of negotiations with the Washington, DC agencies to transform an abandoned parcel in the Mount Vernon Triangle into a luxury hotel and condominiums, Peebles and his development partner were unable to move forward with the project.

Peebles did deliver on his promise to provide an affordable housing component as a term of the initial proposal.

The affordable housing development, 17 Mississippi, held its ribbon cutting ceremony on June 14th, 2023.

In April 2015, Black Enterprise named Peebles as one of the "Business Trailblazers and Titans of Black America: 40 most powerful African Americans in business".

Peebles was born in Washington, D.C. to Ruth Yvonne Willoughby and Roy Donahue Peebles Sr. Peebles and his mother, a real estate professional, relocated to Detroit, MI when he was eight years old.

At the age of 13, Peebles and his mother returned to DC where he completed high school at The Congressional Page High School while serving as a congressional page in the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill.

During this time, he was an intern for two members of Congress and also worked as a staff aide for another Congressional member.

He attended Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey where he studied pre-medicine.

His grandfather was a doorman at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D.C. Peebles has said that assisting his father as a car mechanic while still a child contributed to his strong work ethic.