Roy Donahue Peebles, known as Don, was raised by his mother, a real estate professional, and moved with her to Detroit, Michigan, when he was eight years old. He studied at college for one year before leaving to pursue a career in real estate.
On 9 January 1983, at the age of 23, Peebles opened his own residential and commercial real estate appraisal firm. Later that year Washington's Mayor Marion Barry appointed him to the city's real estate tax appeals board, the Board of Equalization and Review, giving him a young apprenticeship in how property is valued and taxed.
The same year he founded the Peebles Corporation, a privately held real estate investment and development company. In 1986 a Peebles-led partnership acquired the site for his first major commercial development, beginning a career that grew to include large projects across cities including Washington, Miami and New York.
In 1996 Peebles became the first Black member of the historic Bath Club in Miami Beach, an exclusive social club that opened in 1926, and in 1999 he purchased the club itself. The move became a symbol of his determination to own the institutions that had once excluded him.
Peebles is also an author and a political fundraiser. His books include The Peebles Path to Real Estate Wealth and The Peebles Principles, in which he shares what he has learned building a business in an industry where few Black developers have reached his scale.
- Founder, chairman and CEO of the Peebles Corporation
- Opened his own real estate appraisal firm at 23
- First Black member of Miami Beach's Bath Club, which he later bought
- Appointed to Washington's tax appeals board by Mayor Marion Barry, 1983
- Author of The Peebles Path to Real Estate Wealth and The Peebles Principles
- Start before you feel ready. Peebles opened his own firm at 23, before he had the credentials that most people expect to need.
- Own the table you were once excluded from. Becoming the first Black member of the Bath Club, and then buying it, showed how access can turn into ownership.