Michael Swerdlow is one of Florida’s biggest developers. Now in his early 80s, he’s been building across the state and the nation since the 1970s.
He walks with a cane and smokes Camels.
“Built a lot of buildings, as you can see,” he said, flipping through a book highlighting the Swerdlow Group’s projects. “Over 5,000 apartments. Over 4,000 single-family homes. And over 57 million square feet.”
One of his most recent projects was a mixed-use development with apartments, offices and a Target in Miami’s Overtown, a historically Black neighborhood near downtown.
While Swerdlow was building earlier this decade, he was also in court.
A company affiliated with Miami Beach-based The Peebles Corporation sued him for $160 million. It claimed a publicly funded community redevelopment agency conspired to take the project from Peebles and give it to Swerdlow. The agency acted after Peebles struggled to get its part of the project off the ground.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2021 on summary judgment and ordered Peebles Corp. to pay Swerdlow’s legal fees.
In an interview, Swerdlow was asked about his experience with Peebles Corp. and the Overtown project.
“It was horrible,” he said quickly. “He’s a glad-handing guy with a Rolls Royce … Yeah, I shouldn’t say anything like that.”
He then stopped himself. He doesn’t want Donahue Peebles to sue him again.
Swerdlow then offers an olive branch.
“He’s got a very good story,” he said.
By good story, he meant Donahue Peebles becoming a wealthy, nationally known Black developer who came from a modest background.
Concerns about the past, but hired Peebles anyway
That's one reason Mecklenburg County Commissioners picked Peebles Corp. nine years ago in a 5-3 vote to redevelop the Brooklyn neighborhood — a historically Black community that was bulldozed in the 1960s in the name of urban renewal.
But since then, nothing has been built.
Leading up to the vote in 2016, there were whispers that the county was making a mistake by backing Peebles, said former Republican Commissioner Matthew Ridenhour, who opposed the deal.
“I received one email with a lot of links to documents and to articles about Peebles,” he said. “But we never got any kind of confirmation that there was anything unscrupulous.”
He said county staff told commissioners, “Well, he’s in development and sometimes his competition gets jealous.”
The Swerdlow litigation would come a few years after Mecklenburg County partnered with Peebles Corp.
But even nine years ago, the firm and its founder were making headlines for lawsuits and delayed projects.
At that time, Peebles Corp. had been sued by business associates.
Even successful projects — such as the 1990s renovation of the Royal Palm Hotel in Miami Beach — came after years of lawsuits. In Fort Lauderdale, Broward County killed a deal in the early 2000s for Peebles to build a convention center hotel. That came after years of delays and litigation.
Recent projects — such as a long-delayed, high-end condo project in Washington D.C. known as Fifth and Eye have dragged on in the courts for years. The company said it recently received a favorable court ruling in that case.
On a personal level, Donahue Peebles has been sued by his Miami lawn-mowing company and landscaper for non-payment.
When asked about Peebles’ controversial past, Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio said: “I mean, we’re aware of all that. That’s all I got.”
Diorio was in charge in 2016 when Peebles Corp. was picked. She is retiring in less than two weeks and declined to elaborate on how much due diligence the county did before the 2016 vote.
Donahue Peebles’ son, Donahue Peebles III, is the company’s executive vice president. He’s the point person for Brooklyn Village.
In an interview in his Miami Beach office, he said the litigation is not unusual.
“For better or for worse, this is how people in that industry and those locations seek to adjudicate their disputes and solve problems,” he said. “We have no more litigation than any of our competitors.”
He added that his father’s fame, such as appearances on Fox News and his real estate how-to book, have made him an intriguing subject for journalists.
“Certainly my father is very high profile,” he said. “And just like in the conventional news, if it bleeds it leads.”
In Donahue Peebles' autobiography, "The Peebles Principles," he writes that going to court can be a valuable strategy.
“Litigation is a valuable tool in business,” he wrote. “And if used properly can help level the playing field. For example, when I threatened to sue the city (of Miami Beach), the mayor finally stepped in.”
He added: “Basically because of the time and money consumed, and because the outcome is uncertain, most governments and business people don’t like litigation.”
Donahue Peebles III said much of the company’s work — public/private partnerships — is challenging. He said it’s ridiculous to question him and his father’s track record.
“The idea that we don’t deliver on projects is a misnomer and frankly it’s an odd question to have to answer considering we are sitting in a building that we physically constructed,” he said.
How much has Peebles built recently?
WFAE wanted to know about the company’s recent track record of finishing projects in the last five years.
Donahue Peebles III responded that “residential units on the market-rate side hasn’t been a meaningful allocation of our attention.”
(Mostly market-rate housing is the main plan for Brooklyn Village, along with some subsidized, affordable housing.)
Donahue Peebles III said the company recently has been focused on government-supported affordable housing, through an affiliated company named Legacy.
In the last five years, Legacy has finished two medium-sized apartment buildings in Washington D.C. — one with 75 low-income units called HR Crawford and another with 41, called 17 Mississippi.
Those two projects are a fraction of the size of what the company is obligated to build for Brooklyn Village, which includes hundreds of apartments, office space and hotel rooms.
A spokesperson for The Peebles Corporation said the company has also renovated two older properties in the last five years, spending $8 million to improve The Bath Club residences in Miami Beach and also upgrading an office building in Washington D.C. And it completed the penthouses on a luxury condominium conversion project of the old New York Life insurance building in Manhattan New York City. The Peebles Corporation had mostly finished converting the building into residences last decade.
Donahue Peebles III quickly pivoted to what’s coming, in places like Atlanta, Washington D.C., Nashville and Boston.
“We’ve got a 4,800 affordable housing unit pipeline to be developed over the next three to four years,” he said.
Durham says no
That pipeline has gotten smaller, however.
This month, the Durham City Council voted to end negotiations with Peebles over plans to redevelop an old downtown police station with housing, office and retail. The city acted after Peebles’ requested public subsidy increased from $61 million last summer to $78 million this spring.
“I have lost confidence in Peebles based on the conversations I have had with staff,” said Durham council member Nate Baker.
The Peebles Corporation said that Durham changed the scope of the project after being picked by the city in August 2024.
"At the last minute, in a live session, the Council requested that instead of selling the site...they wanted to enter into a ground lease where the city would retain ownership of the property," said Peebles spokesperson Kendall Pryles. "The Council also mandated that the project include 'significantly more affordable housing units.' "
She said the two parties "mutually agreed" to end their relationship.
In watching the critical Mecklenburg Commission vote for Peebles in 2016, it’s remarkable how much has changed.
Trump wasn’t president yet. Only two of the nine commissioners are still there. One — Ella Scarborough — died in 2022. Diorio is retiring.
Ridenhour said he thinks everyone involved put blinders on.
“You have a Black developer who is looking to redevelop a Black community that was destroyed during urban renewal,” he said. “Giving him the business and project is a great story if it’s a successful one. Unfortunately, now it doesn’t look like it will be a successful one.”
As part of its contract with Mecklenburg County, Peebles Corp. has a July 28 deadline to demolish the old Board of Education building. That will make the way for the second phase of Brooklyn Village, even though the first phase hasn’t started yet.
The developer said it needs another year because it recently discovered more asbestos in the building than it previously realized. The county said its need for another year is “meritless.”
