Eye of the Storm

The Mitchell Co. watches over its Gulf Coast properties.

11 MIN READ
CEO John Saint's focus on disaster readiness means The Mitchell Co. can quickly respond when a hurricane rumbles up the Gulf Coast. The company stands ready to provide food, supplies, and comfort after storms.

Lee Celano

CEO John Saint's focus on disaster readiness means The Mitchell Co. can quickly respond when a hurricane rumbles up the Gulf Coast. The company stands ready to provide food, supplies, and comfort after storms.

The Mitchell Co.

  • Founded: 1940s
  • Headquarters: Mobile, Ala.
  • Leader: John Saint, CEO and president
  • Employees: 125
  • 2006 Revenue: $300 million (projected)
  • Multifamily units managed in 2005: 7,500
  • Units built in 2006: 860* (projected) *includes apartments and condos
  • Geographic coverage: Southeast
  • Online:www.mitchellcompany.com

Leadership Lessons: John Saint

  • Title: CEO and president, The Mitchell Co.
  • Age: 60
  • First job: Cutting grass and washing windows
  • Biggest challenge as a company: Purchasing the business from the Resolution Trust Corp. in 1993.
  • Last good book read: The Collectors by David Baldacci

Colorful History

When John Saint, CEO and president of the Mitchell Co. in Mobile, Ala., looked out his window on May 11, 1991, his first instinct was to lock the doors to his company’s offices. What did he see outside? Federal agents storming the building that housed the company’s headquarters. It was the middle of the savings-and-loan crisis of the early 1990s, and the government’s target was a banker on the first floor.

But Mitchell was also threatened by the S&L scandal. Saint soon knew that the company, then owned by a savings-and-loan called Altus Federal Savings Bank of Mobile, Ala., would also be taken over by the government. “We entered our dark period,” Saint says. “We were in a controlled liquidation.”

Ironically, the only thing saving the company was a flurry of lawsuits, which were filed when Mitchell’s single-family division split from the company after the federal takeover. “Old friends and business associates were suing each other back and forth,” Saint recalls.

Because of the suit, no one would buy the company. So the Resolution Trust Corp. eventually sold the business to Saint and his team in 1993. (This was yet another transaction for a company that in the 20 previous years had gone from the Mitchell family to the Singer Sewing Co. to the Mitchells again, then to Altus Federal.)

Incidentally, that was also the last year the Mitchell Co., which develops everything from condos to apartments to office and industrial properties, didn’t turn a profit.

“We’ve had a steady increase in sales profits since 1993, and we will have a good year this year in spite of the downturn,” Saint says. “We have a bunch of individual divisions that produce profit at different times. When housing is down, apartment development and occupancies go up, while the commercial business is a lagging industry that will perform four or five years after a recession.”

About the Author

Les Shaver

Les Shaver is a former deputy editor for the residential construction group. He has more than a decade's experience covering multifamily and single-family housing.

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