Executive Session with Dale Weidemiller

Executive Session with Dale Weidemiller

President of Neal Communities Land Development Inc.

PERSONAL

HOMETOWN: Colonial Village, N.Y.

EDUCATION: Niagara County Community College, A.A, degree.

AGE: 56

FAMILY: Wife, Sandy, two daughters, 42 and 40, and son, 30.

HOW HE ESCAPES: "I live on the river and I've got a pontoon boat so we watch the sunsets. We're also a part of The Friends of the Braden River. My wife is the Save the Manatee representative for the river. We just did the Keep Manatee Beautiful cleanup a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing, the stuff people throw in the river. If you look in the back of my truck any day it's full of trash that I've picked up as I'm driving through."

READING LIST: "London Bridges," a mystery novel by John Patterson.

FAVORITE WEB SITES: pogo.com "You can play checkers or chess against other people."

FIRST-PAYING JOB: "With Firestone in Niagara Falls, as an apprentice mechanic."

WHY AREN'T YOU STILL A MECHANIC?: "They had a 15-point safety inspection that was designed to run the bill up higher and I just kept telling people, 'Nah, you still got about six months.' So I didn't meet some quota so they let me go."

WHY A HOME BUILDER?: "I was with Pizza Hut in 1976. After I opened five restaurants in the area they said they had a great opportunity for me in Duluth, Minn., and coming down from the Niagara Falls area I said, 'No way.' So a friend of mine (Bernie Croghan) was developing El Conquistador Country Club. He was my mentor and asked me to come aboard with him and he really taught me from the ground up. He really liked that I didn't have a lot of knowledge because I didn't have a lot of bad experiences."

WHAT "BAD" WORK EXPERIENCES HAVE YOU HAD?: "I worked for Frank and Dan Carney, the original founders (of Pizza Hut). I used to fly to Wichita for school and meet with Frank. There's actually a funny story there where my first time meeting with Frank, it was like 1 o'clock and it was after lunch and I was in the restroom ... and my zipper stuck in the down position. I said, 'Oh great, I finally get to meet Frank Carney and blah, blah, blah.' This guy comes out of the cubicle says, 'Ah don't worry, he won't mind.' I go in and of course the guy in the cubicle was Frank Carney."

WHAT IS YOUR BEST PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT: "University Park Country Club. In 1990 we (Weidemiller and Pat Neal) met for coffee and he said, 'Do you want to take a ride?' And he took me out in the middle of nowhere. This turned out to be University Park. Because University Parkway wasn't completed, we ended up getting stuck, and he's waving his arms saying this is where the golf course is, this is going to be beautiful and he said, 'Why don't you come and run it for us?' ... He said, 'You can have all the decision making and it'll be great.' On that day we shook hands and I agreed to do it. For 13 years he gave me the lead and that made University Park very special. Primarily I think it was three things: First, It was the best golf course in the area and we maintained that. Second, the native vegetation we preserved was before it was required. And thirdly, there's just a lot of happy people there that are good friends, both employees and residents."

DO YOU PLAY GOLF?: "I used to golf, but now I play tennis. Golf takes too much time."

DID YOU PLAY THE COURSE YOU HELPED BUILD?: "I played it when it was dirt. We played dirt ball. We interviewed golf pros and had them hit because you didn't get the roll."

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

TIME WITH COMPANY: Since it's inception on March 1. Weidemiller has been a part of Neal Communities since September of 1990, but he worked with Pat Neal since 1977 through joint ventures.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS: He was previously president of Wilmington Land Co., a subsidiary of Neal Communities. Wilmington Land Co. was a title-land company that primarily bought land for companies other than Neal Communities.

HOW DID THE NEW COMPANY COME ABOUT: "It was collaborated with Pat. We intend to grow the overall company 20% a year so we just needed a major focus on land for Neal.

"I have to buy land two to three years in advance. I have to be out ahead to keep the machine going. With nothing but our company focused on that it should help assure our success."

BIGGEST MISTAKE HE SAW: "People would build too much inventory. Because sales were good they'd build 400 or 500 lots or they'd build four or five buildings thinking they'd save some money by building at today's price. Then the market would turn sour and they'd be stuck with this inventory. That was in the late '70s, early '80s."

LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP STYLE: "I use a lot of humor. Some self-deprecating and some general. I'm crazy about attention to detail. It just finishes the job by paying attention to detail and making sure it's as good as it possibly can be. ... I drive most people crazy because of it."

WHAT'S THE ONE THING YOUR CO-WORKERS DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU?: "I play the piano. I just play for Sandy, I sing for her too."

WHAT PIECE DO YOU LOVE TO PLAY?: "The theme from the Godfather."

CHALLENGES

IMMEDIATE CHALLENGES: "To try and get entitlements to all the properties, through a system that's currently clogged because of all the applications they're trying to process. It's hard to spend a lot of money, then have it take a year before it goes to the commission, but that's what you have to do."

WHAT'S AHEAD

ECONOMIC/INDUSTRY FORECAST FOR THE REGION: "I think land values will level off and maybe dip a little bit. I think we'll have slow sustained growth for the next 20 years in the 3% to 5% range."

WHEN WILL THAT HAPPEN?: "Around mid-2006. I'm already starting to see it somewhat. A friend of mine builds homes on Bird Key in the $3 million range and he's already starting to see that level out and that's usually where it begins.

"I hate rapid growth and I hate rapid depression. I like slow sustained growth. You can plan your business, you can manage your business."

HOW WILL NEAL HANDLE A SLOW DOWN?: "Because we pay cash for land, we're able to hold the land in the event there is a slow down. As long as we don't develop a lot of lots, we'll have the land in our inventory we just won't have developed it."