Founded in 1976 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Southern Ventures Corporation has operated for over forty years as a diversified real estate company in the residential, multi-family, hospitality and commercial markets.
Leveraging its’ diverse experiences in construction, development and management, Southern Ventures Corporation pursues new business opportunities through its three operating divisions and seeks to deliver increased value to its clients and customers.
With over forty years of experience, Venture Construction capitalizes upon a diverse background of projects to drive current construction efforts. In addition to commercial projects, the Craftsman Homes and Patrician Homes brands are utilized in the building of single family homes.
The licensed real estate agents at Venture Realty adhere to the company mission of Everything in Real Estate. Whether buying, renting or selling, they stand ready to lend their considerable experience toward the singular goal of facilitating your real estate needs.
Having managed a diverse portfolio of real estate projects in the single family housing, multi family housing, hospitality and commercial markets before, during and after completion, Venture Management‘s broad experience is key to the future growth of Southern Ventures Corporation.
We are extraordinarily proud to be celebrating our fortieth year of business operations in 2016. Throughout the course of our history, Southern Ventures Corporation has enjoyed a success that has allowed us to provide new homes to hundreds of owners, provide the finest apartment living to thousands of residents and serve tens of thousands of guests in our hotels.
In our service to others over those years, thousands of people have found employment at Southern Ventures – some as a stepping stone to another career, but many as veteran team members that worked or continue to work here for decades. Our team members, in conjunction with the company itself – have organized events have contributed time, goods, service and dollars to community organizations that depend on such efforts to succeed.
Perhaps most importantly, our long history has allowed us to enjoy great relationships and good friends along the way. As much as we value all these past events, however, we have and continue to be a company focused on the future; the future of our company and its team members, the future of our communities and the future of our country. As in the past, we plan to assert our best efforts to make a quality contribution to them all.
New Website
We have recently launched our new website which highlights our current business operations as well as our fortieth anniversary. Please visit us online today for more information!
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Hampton Inn & Suites
Southern Ventures Corporation (SVC) is excited to announce that Brooks Realty has been rebranded as Venture Realty in honor of SVC’s 40th Anniversary.
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Announcing Venture Realty
Southern Ventures Corporation is excited to announce that Brooks Realty has been rebranded as Venture Realty in honor of SVC’s 40th Anniversary.
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SVC Celebrates 40th Anniversary
This year, we are very proud to be celebrating our 40th Anniversary. From our founding in 1976 to the present day, we have always striven for excellence.
read moreORIGINS
The dream of this company began in the fall of 1976 when the homebuilding partnership of Larson and Carnathan Builders was formed and incorporated the following year as Southern Ventures Corporation – a name that reflected a vision beyond a single building operation. The median price of a new home at that time was $45,300 which was very close to the price of the company’s first home sale.
The late 1970’s were fairly tough times for homebuilding with both inflation and interest rates on the rise. In 1980, Ronald Reagan became president and combated inflation with high interest rates as the prime rate rose to twenty-one percent. That same year, Southern Ventures opened its first offices at Pinedale Road and in spite of the economic challenges, found ways to grow with new homes being built in company developments such as Spencer’s Crossing, Saddle Creek, Brittany Woods and the Villages of Willow Bend.
Additional growth came as the company diversified into other development programs including the area’s first office condominiums, Executive Park Town Office, in a joint venture with Whitworth Builders, as well as waterfront townhomes at Taliesin South and rental offices at the Union Station Professional Centre.
EXPANSION
Recognizing a need for rental housing, the company turned its attention to creating a new level of apartment living and, in 1989, opened the first Cayo Grande Apartments in Fort Walton Beach. Cayo Grande’s colonial West Indies architecture and beautifully landscaped courtyards were met with an enthusiastic response – most buildings being fully leased by completion.
In the early 1990’s, national economic challenges burgeoned into the S&L Crisis, resulting in severe restrictions on commercial lending; however, the company developed new strategies for funding growth as more apartments were added to Cayo Grande and operations were expanded to include the Cayo Grande Suites Hotel and the Market Cafe. All the while, homebuilding operations continued at a robust pace with new homes being built in Lake Lorraine, Shalimar Woods and Harbor Breeze. By the late 1990’s, a second Cayo Grande Apartments was opened in Navarre, Florida and a plan was formed for an ambitious multi-front expansion into new markets and products while our single-family homebuilding program took a hiatus.
As the new millennium began, Southern Ventures had been in business for 24 years and continued to be an innovative leader in the local construction industry. The expanding economy fostered our own expansion as we continued to bring high quality apartment communities to new markets with a Cayo Grande Apartments opening in 2001 on the golf course at Bluewater Bay in Niceville, Florida; the Riverwood Apartments opening in 2003 in Crestview, Florida; and the Chez Elan ~ Fine Apartments opening its first phase in 2004 and later phases in 2006 and 2008 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
In addition to its apartment operations, and based on the success of the Cayo Grande Suites Hotel, the company expanded its presence in the hotel industry by securing a franchise in Destin for an Embassy Suites Hotel and opening the 155-room property along Miramar Beach in 2001; followed by the opening in 2008 of the 102-room Hampton Inn & Suites Hotel in Navarre, Florida.
FOCUS and REFOCUS
In 2008 Southern Ventures re-opened its Pinedale offices after an extensive remodeling program that yielded space for its various operations, housed in an iconic Craftsman styled building that rests peacefully among the large southern oaks that grace the grounds. That same year also brought new economic challenges as the national real estate market faltered and some of the nation’s largest financial institutions failed.
As the financial crisis expanded, its effects were felt across virtually all industries, especially the commercial real estate business that was core to the Southern Ventures programs. The company responded with increased focus on our management operations with a drive to increase our efficiencies while continuing to deliver quality services and products to our customers.
An additional factor brought on by the economic times was the lack of funding available for the larger scale projects that had been Southern Venture’s focus for the prior fifteen years and in response the company refocused on its homebuilding roots, creating a new brand Craftsman Homes by Southern Ventures and producing houses in Crestview, Niceville, Fort Walton Beach and, most recently, Milton, Florida.
THE GREAT RECESSION
With its long history of operations through both good times and bad, with its group of well-defined and driven operations, with its seasoned managers being augmented with talented new managers and with a focus on its redefined mission, Southern Ventures Corporation charts a new course into a future of building new business, developing new projects and expanding into new geographic markets. Moving forward to these goals, Southern Ventures is concentrates its’ efforts through the company’s three primary real estate programs:
Venture Management specializes in managing the construction, development and operations of real estate assets. As an experienced and successful real estate developer and manager, Venture Management is well qualified to provide clients with the insightful analysis, creative planning, relentless execution and effective operation of their real estate business plans and properties.
Venture Construction leverages our forty years of experience in building single-family homes, apartments, hotels and commercial buildings. In addition to providing general and mechanical contractor services, the company offers new homes through its exclusive brands Craftsman Homes and Patrician Homes; currently offering new homes in Fort Walton Beach and Milton, Florida.
Venture Realty is a full-service real estate brokerage with offices in Fort Walton Beach and Milton, Florida that provides buyers and sellers with the comprehensive services required for successfully completing their real estate transactions. The experienced agents at Venture Realty stand ready to fulfill its’ long-standing motto of Everything in Real Estate.
MANAGEMENT
LOWELL LARSON
CEO, FounderAs CEO, Lowell Larson is charged with managing Southern Ventures Corporation as a diversified real estate management company while employing many talented people and creating some of Northwest Florida’s finest properties.
Lowell holds a Certified Building Contractor license, a Registered General Contractor license, a Florida Real Estate Broker license and an Associate Degree in Building Construction Technology.
BRENDA HENDERSON
CFOBrenda Henderson, as CFO, directs the managers charged with executing our business plans and oversees an accounting staff responsible for the myriad bookkeeping and tax-reporting tasks required of the several business entities under their charge. Additionally, she is responsible for the deft implementation of new financial and operational systems to assure the continued success of Southern Ventures Corporation.
Brenda Henderson holds a Florida Real Estate license and is a bonded Notary.
