TOP STORY, OCT.: Ranch Anniversary

Throughout the holiday week, YourObserver.com will be counting down the top 12 stories of 2010 (one from each month) from our Longboat, East County and Sarasota Observers. Check back each day for a reprinting — and any relevant updates — of the biggest news items of the year.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCT. 14, 2010.

Click to view our 15 Years Strong special section.

LAKEWOOD RANCH — It seems as if everything Schroeder-Manatee Ranch’s founding CEO Mary Fran Carroll has touched has turned to gold.

Or as Carroll rebuts: “(That) may be a stretch, but everything sure came up smelling like roses.”

Carroll, now 87, walks to her office in her Sarasota home. A bookshelf and wall are dedicated to pieces of the history she’s helped create — plaques for the groundbreaking of Lakewood Ranch High School, Lakewood Ranch Medical Center and more

But the plaque naming the bridge on Lorraine Road in her honor is her most treasured.

“It was validation,” she says.

BEGINNINGS
Before coming to SMR, Carroll, spent 18 years in the trust department for Northern Trust Co. in Chicago. When a prominent landowner showed up at Northern Trust’s doorstep seeking expertise, Carroll proved just the fit. As the leader of one of seven owning families of a 30,000-acre parcel in Manatee, the man was entitled to a seat on the board of directors.

Carroll, now 87, came to visit the property when representatives of the owning families were going to be in town for a meeting.

“I wasn’t sure how I should dress for this occasion,” Carroll recalls. “Northern Trust was a very white-glove bank. I just didn’t think that was the style to go look at cows.”

Instead she opted for a loose-fitting skirt, blouse and open-toed shoes. Carroll thought she’d picked correctly until a Uihlein family member turned to her and said her outfit would not do.
“I went back and told the bank they’d have to fund cowboy boots for me,” Carroll says. “And they did.”

The family decided Carroll — although new to the venture — would preside as chairman of the board of directors.

CHANGE OF PACE
When the River Club community began to develop, Carroll began seriously to think about the property’s future.

“We weren’t in the middle of the Sahara Desert anymore,” says Carroll, who moved to work for SMR full time in 1986. “That led me to development.”

Until then, SMR’s operations had been agricultural. Its tree, cattle and lawn turf ventures were barely breaking even. In 1984, Carroll brought John Clarke, then-owner of Agricultural Management Service, to make SMR’s agricultural arms profitable.

“(The property) really had been run by a cowboy,” Clarke said. “From ’84, we built the base of the agriculture, which became the basis of cash flow (for development).”

He also began a study of the property to see what areas would be best suited for the company’s agricultural operations as well as for restoration, preservation or development. Meanwhile, Carroll convinced politicians and others there was life east of Interstate 75.

In December 1989, SMR got approval of its Cypress Banks development of regional impact, which now includes Summerfield and Riverwalk communities.

To a Sarasota County Commission meeting in 1991, Carroll wore a purple dress to earn support for SMR to build a business park east of Interstate 75 and south of University Parkway.

“She said, ‘I’m here because I believe in the purple blob,’” Clarke recalled. “The county commission thought it so fun, they gave us the purple blob.”

With approvals in hand, SMR found itself in a holding pattern. By 1990, the market had died, and the credit market fell into distress. Rather than falter, SMR hired a team of experts to help plan the future, so when the market returned, the company would be ready to move forward. Carroll threatened her new team to walk the straight and narrow.

“I said, ‘I will publicly disown you,’” she said. “‘We are going to get everything we get fair and square.’ That set a tone for our company.”

MASTER PLAN
Clarke and current President and CEO Rex Jensen, who joined SMR March 1990, visited developments in California, Maryland and more to look at big ranches that had been developed into residential communities.

And about three years before the construction of the first model in 1995, SMR began preparing for residential home sales, securing permits and laying infrastructure. It broke ground in 1994.

“We weren’t there to build the whole of Lakewood Ranch tomorrow,” Carroll says.

Looking back, Carroll and Clarke say they are proud of their community. Moments such as Carroll’s most recent visit to the voting polls — where a worker recognized her for her purple dress — continue to validate the sense of accomplishment. The worker quoted Carroll’s speech, including her claim that SMR’s project would make commissioners proud.

“He said, ‘You delivered in spades,’” Carroll says. “It’s magnificent.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

TIMELINE
1900 — First house in Lorraine township is built.

1905 — John Schroeder, of Milwaukee, Wis., assembles land as the Schroeder Manatee Ranch.

1922 — Uihlein Family, founders of the Schlitz brewery, purchase SMR.

1960 — Ranching operations extend beyond cattle and timber.

1978 — First shell and aggregate mine opens.

1983 — Planning for residential development begins.

1989 — Cypress Banks DRI is approved (later becomes Summerfield and Riverwalk).

1991 — University Place DRI is approved (later becomes Corporate Park).

1991 — Sarasota Polo Club opens.

1992 University Lakes DRI is approved (later becomes Edgewater, the Country Club and Town Center).

Feb. 23, 1994 — Schroeder-Manatee Ranch breaks ground for Lakewood Ranch.

1995 — Summerfield Village opens, and the first home is sold.

1996 — Edgewater opens; and University Parkway expansion begins.

1997 — The Country Club, Legacy golf course, Corporate Park, and The Out-of-Door Academy’s Upper School all open.

1998 — The 1000th homebuyer purchases a home, and Lakewood Ranch earns the BALA award for best master-planned community in America from the Professional Builder magazine/National Association of Home Builders. Lakewood Ranch High School opens.

1999 — Financial Park at Town Center opens; and Lakewood Ranch Commerce Park is announced. Ranch station at Town Center, Riverwalk, and the Braden River Bridge all open.

2000 — Market Square at Town Center and Greenbrook open. The 2000th homebuyer purchases a home.

2001 — Lakewood Ranch Golf & Country Club opens. Lakewood Ranch’s first hotel, Holiday Inn, opens.

2002 — Cypress Links, Greenbrook Adventure Park and Port Marnock’s second phase open.

2003 — MCC’s Center for Innovation & Technology, Lakewood Ranch Medical Center and McNeal Elementary open. Digital Village is launched.

2004 — Town Hall, Heritage Ranch, Nolan Middle School, LECOM, and King’s Dunes’ first nine holes all open. Lakewood Ranch opens its first housing east of Lorraine Road. Lakewood Ranch Boulevard expands to four lanes near University Parkway to the Braden River Bridge.

March 2004 — Florida Green Building Coalition certifies 9,742 acres of Lakewood Ranch for future development.

November 2004 — Rex Jensen is elected to CEO. He took office Feb 7, 2005, when John Clarke retired.

2005 — Main Street opens.

2006 — Tax collector office opens.

June 2006 — Florida Green Building Coalition certifies 4,545 acres of Lakewood Ranch future development, making a total of 14,287 certified “green.”

2010 — Sarasota County approves Villages project south of University Parkway.

MEMORY LANE
Below are some of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch officials’ treasured anecdotes from Lakewood Ranch’s early days.

+ A field of dreams
Mary Fran Carroll didn’t know what to think as she stopped to pick a few tomatoes one day from a field along Lorraine Road. It was there she spotted a perfectly manicured lawn, complete with goal posts.

When she asked her employees about the matter, they were quick to explain any concerns away, noting neither the maintenance of the field nor the posts cost the company any money. John Clarke and others had secretly begun playing polo there without Carroll’s knowledge.

Carroll says she didn’t mind but enjoyed seeing the men squirm with worry.

“She wagged her finger at us and said, ‘I don’t want to see lights there ever,’” Clarke said, smiling.

Then, Carroll quickly and purposely disappeared into her office.

+ All country
When CFO Tony Chiofalo joined SMR’s team as the company’s first accountant in 1988, he knew only he’d been hired to bring SMR’s accounting operations in-house. The New Yorker had interviewed at Carroll’s home and had not stepped on the property until his first day on the job.

On his first day, Chiofalo arrived to work at the company’s “bunkhouse” in a three-piece suit only to find a horse stable on the other side of his office door.

“When I walked in that first day, there was not a thing,” he said. “I had to drive to the Circle K to buy paper and pencils — supplies to get started.”

+ Family Christmas
Although SMR now holds catered dinners for its employees at Christmastime, workers originally enjoyed a family potluck on the farm to celebrate the holidays.

Chiofalo had quite the experience. When a farmhand asked if he’d like to see what they’d be eating, he didn’t realizing saying “yes” would ruin his appetite.

“He had caught a wild hog,” Chiofalo said. “ He was going to feed it corn, kill it and cook it.”

Later, at the party, Chiofalo sampled what he was told was “popcorn chicken.”

“It was alligator,” Chiofalo said.