The Richard-Brandon Company concentrates its real estate development efforts in South Florida - primarily southern Miami-Dade County - our own backyard. L. Richard (Rick) Mattaway and Brandon Lurie formed the company in 1995 out of an ambition to create an enterprise with a balance between the stability of income producing investment properties and the rewards offered by development opportunities. Our investment philosophy is guided by the principal of identifying properties with substantial opportunity for appreciation. Our development efforts are geared to niche properties with an identifiable market.

Rick Mattaway comes from a background of successful legal practice as a partner in a Miami law firm specializing in federal taxation and real estate. He left the practice of law in 1980 to form Westway Limited, a real estate investment and development company. Under Mr. Mattaway's leadership, and prior to the formation of The Richard-Brandon Company, Westway developed, constructed and sold hundreds of townhouses in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. Westway services its own multi-million dollar mortgage portfolio and acquired and managed a 250-room, 6-acre hotel property on Miami Beach which was eventually sold to the developers of the Oceania condominium development for their second phase of that project.

In 1995, at the same time as Mr. Mattaway and Mr. Lurie were forming The Richard-Brandon Company, Mr. Mattaway formed NetSpeak Corporation together with his brother, Shane Mattaway. NetSpeak, which became a public company in 1997, developed and holds patents on voice-over-internet technology. Mr. Mattaway served initially as president, and later as a director of NetSpeak.

Brandon Lurie, a native of the Miami area, brings a vast real estate and finance background to The Richard-Brandon Company. Mr. Lurie gained his experience in real estate development, prior to 1995, as President of Aura Group Inc., a South Florida real estate acquisition, development and management company. Some of the projects Mr. Lurie was involved in include: development of Corporate Park at Kendall, a 31-acre office/industrial park with approximately 125,000 square feet of currently existing warehouse space; Kings Meadows, a 620-acre PUD in West Kendall, Florida; a 320-acre, 1,300 unit DRI project located in Ocala, Florida; and a 164 unit mobile home relief project for Dade County for the replacement of migrant worker housing destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. In addition, while with Aura Group, Mr. Lurie was responsible for overseeing 100's of thousands square feet of multi-tenant warehouse space and office space, and  1,000's of acres of developed and undeveloped land. Mr. Lurie was also responsible for sales and acquisitions, including over 650 acres of land sold to the State of Florida, 100 acres sold to Dade County, Florida, as well as the sales and acquisition of several commercial properties located throughout the state of Florida.

In addition to its founders, the Richard-Brandon Company consists of a team of experienced, dedicated professionals.

Each of our development projects puts to use all of the skills and experience of the Richard-Brandon team. We first identify viable properties and ascertain the best possible use to which it can be put. We negotiate the purchase and provide or obtain the equity and financing for acquisition. We perform thorough due diligence with our own staff and through the employment of experts to determine all variables that must be satisfied to make a development feasible, including market analysis, environmental hazards, utility availability, cost analyses and financial projections. We oversee design and planning of the project starting with selection of professionals (i.e., architects, engineers and other professionals and consultants). We perform value engineering throughout the design process. We oversee the bidding process to insure the employment of the best combination of both the most capable and the most economical contractors. We supervise both off-site and on-site development as well as the construction of all improvements from shell to interiors. We provide job cost accounting with budget variance analysis. We provide the brokerage services necessary to lease or sell the final product. We provide management services including computer generated operating reports to costs finalized and bank draws.

In short, The Richard-Brandon Company is prepared to undertake and fulfill every aspect of a real estate project, meeting our goal of creating a balanced, full service real estate enterprise.