Delbert E. Webb born May 17, 1899 was a brilliant, innovative, visionary and risk taker who always knew how to get things done better. He perfected the modern notion of a retirement community when he launched the first ever “Master Planned Community” of Sun City, Arizona. This innovation launched Del Webb into the national spotlight and made him an American icon and a mega-success.
A Start in Construction
In 1928, he started a carpentry job on a building for a small construction company that seemed to be working on a shoestring budget. The company’s financial woes became apparent when one Friday he went to the bank to cash his weekly paycheck and funds weren’t there. The next day the owner of the building came to Del and said that he felt he knew what he was doing and asked if he would finish the job. This was a challenging start of Del Webb’s contracting and building career. His total starting assets were one concrete mixer, 10 wheelbarrows, 20 shovels and 10 picks. Construction jobs began to come his way and, in-spite of the depression, by 1933 he had built a 3 million dollar operation. In 1935, he opened a branch office in Los Angeles and in 1938 his success continued as he built an addition for the Arizona State Capitol.
Del Webb an American Icon
Del was always well organized. In the early years of his contracting business, he had procedural manuals written to cover every aspect of the business. Instead of rag-tag construction shacks, he used portable offices identical in color and furnished with uniformity at every building site. Webb’s organizational mandate paid handsomely during the war years when construction work became frenzied. This helped make him rich.
Beyond the organizational aspect of business, Del was also adept at creating social contacts. Del golfed at 14 courses around the country. He constantly cultured friendships or relationships with politicians, the wealthy, celebrities and all kinds of people. He knew J. Edgar Hoover (FBI), was good friends with the eccentric Howard Hughes, golfed with Bing Crosby, played golf with presidential hopeful Barry Goldwater, and the list goes on.
His business success and social contacts with other influential people provided him the opportunity to once again be associated with his lifelong passion, the game of baseball. Del Webb must have been very happy when in 1945 he and two partners purchased the New York Yankees for $2.8 million dollars. During his 19 years of ownership the Yankees won 15 Pennants and 10 World Series Titles! Over this period a lot of Yankee tickets went to help clinch construction contracts, influence politicians and others. They sold the team in 1964 for $14 million dollars.
Master Planner
Back in 1948, Webb was contracted to build 600 houses and a shopping center called Pueblo Gardens in Tucson, Arizona. This project triggered the idea to do a retirement community. He researched why previous attempts by others were not very successful. Through his group’s research Del Webb came to the conclusion that people needed to be convinced that they would want to live in an active adult community with great weather, golf, recreation, fitness, swimming, tennis – a perpetual “Week of Sundays”. This idea was developed into the concept of “Sun City” which would become the first ever “Master Planned Community”. By making this community age restricted, the resort- like amenities could be enjoyed by like-minded people. Although Sun City was called a city, it would never be incorporated and therefore would always remain private. This allowed the enforcement of age restrictions. Not knowing for sure if there would be a profitable demand for such a place, Webb took a chance and bought 20,000 acres on the outskirts of Phoenix. Part of this land was for the future Sun City!
Every street, building lot, golf course and recreation center was planned and mapped out. Before their opening, they constructed five air-conditioned model homes, a shopping center, a grocery store, drug store, recreation center, and a golf course. They advertised nationally on radio, TV, newspapers, and anticipated 10,000 visitors during their grand opening on January 1-3, 1960. During those three days the area was jammed with traffic as 100,000 people came to the event! Sun City, Arizona became a huge success. Other Phoenix vicinity communities built were SC West, SC Grand, and SC Festival totaling about 34,500 more homes. In 2001, during the construction of Sun City Palm Desert, Del Webb was sold to Pulte Homes, for $1.8 billion dollars with annual sales projected at 28,000 homes
Pulte continued to use the Del Webb brand. One of their first sole projects was Sun City Shadow Hills 2003-2016 following “Del Webb Rancho Mirage“ which broke ground in 2018. Today, there are Del Webb Sun City Communities in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Illinois.
Time Magazine selected Del Webb as “Man of The Year” in 1962 and featured his picture on their front cover. In the year 2000, he was named to the Gaming Hall of Fame.
Del Webb was a very engaging and energetic individual that perpetually migrated to better solutions in every aspect of his business career. These attributes propelled him to become an American Icon. Del Webb died in 1974 from cancer. He was 75. Del was married twice and had no children. He left a substantial amount of his wealth to the Del E. Webb Foundation, which funds medical projects in Arizona, California and Nevada.
To Read Del Webb’s Full Story, Written by the Real Estate Team of Jelmberg and Keller Williams, click this link: www.kwcoachellavalley.com/blog/del-webb-an-american-icon
