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Tag: homebuilder

Real Estate 2023: ALBERT G. ‘BEAU’ VAN METRE JR.

Van Metre’s late father founded his family real estate development company in 1955, partnering with B.B. Wills to build the first Van Metre Homes in Burke, a Fairfax County suburb. Like Northern Virginia, Van Metre Cos. has grown exponentially in the decades since.

Beau Van Metre joined the company in 1963. In 2002, he was appointed vice chairman and he became chairman in 2008. Ashburn-based Van Metre Homes, one of the company’s subsidiaries, was named Pro Builder magazine’s 2022 Builder of the Year. Van Metre Cos. owns and manages more than 1 million square feet of commercial space in Northern Virginia, and it has a design and build group and a mortgage division.

He also is a trustee for the Van Metre Family Trusts and runs the Van Metre Family Foundation with his sister, Alison Van Metre Paley. Their family foundation has made more than $4.4 million in donations to charitable organizations ranging from the Children’s National Health System to Loudoun County-based Women Giving Back.

Well-known in the yacht racing world for winning the 1976 Newport Bermuda Race with his father, Beau Van Metre also won last year’s New York Yacht Club Regatta.

Real Estate 2023: ROBERT C. ‘BOB’ KETTLER

Coming from a long line of real estate developers, Kettler got his start in real estate in 1974, remodeling apartments while still a student at George Washington University. He left school to focus on work. Discovering a passion for community development, he founded real estate development company Kettler in 1977.

Founded in 1977, his company has developed more than 30,000 multifamily units, 10 million square feet of commercial space and more than 75,000 homes in 40 master-planned communities, as well as numerous mixed-use communities in the Washington, D.C., area.

While Kettler was still in his early 20s, Fairfax developer John “Til” Hazel Jr. advised him to buy up as much land in the county as he could — advice Kettler took seriously. His first big development was Sully Station in Centreville, a 3,000-home community. Over the years, Kettler has been involved with developing major Northern Virginia projects like Tysons Corner Center, The Boro and One Loudoun, as well as some developments in North Carolina.

Kettler entered the Tampa, Florida, market this year with the March groundbreaking of Gas Worx, a 50-acre mixed-use development in the Ybor City neighborhood.