Back in the Game

Across the country, Peebles is forging ahead where other ambitious developments have stumbled and collapsed under the credit crisis. In Las Vegas, where he plans to build the country's first six-star hotel and ultra-luxury condos, Deutsche Bank was threatening to begin foreclosure proceedings on another developer's $3.9 billion Cosmopolitan Resort Casino. In Northern California, Wachovia recently began calling in $61 million in loans to a prominent contractor who fell behind in loan payments for a posh golf course community. In Fort Lauderdale and Miami, about 10,000 new condo units are set to go on the market on top of an already-languishing inventory.

Last year, Peebles said he would stop investing in South Florida. But he believes Las Vegas and San Francisco remain promising markets.

D.C. developer Douglas Jemal described the 48-year-old Peebles as "a guy that certainly could exist in a bad environment very, very well. He's a fighter. He knows his business. He started from nothing."

Peebles's wife, Katrina, met him on a busy street in Georgetown 18 years ago. They started talking, dated and were engaged within a year.

Early on, she knew she was signing up for a no-holds-barred partnership. They spent part of their honeymoon in Montana putting together a bid to buy the old Riggs bank building on Ninth and F streets NW. They won the building, after significant behind-the-scenes lobbying that required calls to an appointee in the Clinton administration. (The couple's political fundraisers -- which included several for Bill Clinton -- didn't hurt.)

Ultimately, Peebles's relationship with Barry failed to prove quite as fruitful. As a young aspiring real estate appraiser, Peebles had endeared himself to Barry by holding a key fundraiser to help the mayor pay off his campaign debt. Peebles won an appointment to the influential D.C. board of tax appeals and later the chairmanship. But a D.C. governing panel at the time, called the control board, declared enough when Barry tried to steer two lease contracts worth $48 million to Peebles.

Peebles learned that he lost the bid when he heard it on the television. Disgusted by the politics, Peebles took his family to Miami for a vacation. While there, Peebles saw a request for proposals for a high-end hotel project. He and Katrina wrote their bid on the way back to the District. When he won the project, they moved to Miami.

For the next 10 years, he built his empire, reaching out to acquire land in other cities. Part of his strategy is to distribute his projects among markets to spread risk.

The conservatism that made dealmaking in Washington so difficult is one that Peebles now hopes to capitalize on. Next week, he plans to make a presentation on a new luxury hotel that he wants to build on a lot he bought at Fifth and Eye streets NW.

There will be a subterranean nightclub, so as not to disturb the neighbors at 555 Massachusetts Ave. On the first floor will be a high-end, glass-walled restaurant named after Peebles's wife. A coffee shop will serve guests and the community.

"D.C. is ready for something a little more chic, a little more sophisticated," Peebles said.

Over the weekend, Peebles had planned to take his wife and son, Donahue III, who turns 14 this week, and daughter, Chloe, 5, to the Caribbean for a brief vacation. But then a D.C. friend told him about a possible development opportunity in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"Who knows, we may swing down to St. Croix," Peebles said last week. "You have to look for the opportunities."