CULVERHOUSE IS A LANDOWNER WHO DOES IT THE RIGHT WAY
Hugh Culverhouse Jr. gets upset at being called a developer. He’s an “attorney and investor,” he says, one who is selling the land for others to develop. Culverhouse should not get upset by the SRQ magazine recognizing him and hailing his generous philanthropic spirit and his unwavering commitment to championing respect, hope and understanding in the Sarasota community.
Culverhouse is one of the largest landowners in Southwest Florida. Culverhouse owns a lot of so much land beyond Palmer Ranch, including 2,400 acres east of Interstate 75, projected for development in the decades to come.
Culverhouse was born and raised in Alabama. He and his wife have homes in Coral Gables and Sarasota and maintain an office in Palmer Ranch. Culverhouse is married to Eliza Perlmutter, the glamorous daughter of a renowned South Florida neurosurgeon, who together have donated millions to charities.
CULVERHOUSE A SARASOTA POWER BROKER
Jensen/Benderson/Beruff/Neal
Culverhouse has become one of Sarasota County’s leading power brokers. He is unlike Pat Neal though, the mega-developer who controls the local establishment Republican Party. Culverhouse, unlike Neal and his fellow multimillion dollar developers like Randy Benderson, Rex Jensen and Carlos Beruff, Culverhouse is unpredictable and unbound to any group.
Many developers create Community Development Districts (CDDs) that require residents to pay for infrastructure such as roads and sewers, a practice that critics consider double taxation. Culverhouse does not allow his developers to use such districts.
CDDs are designed to fund and manage infrastructure for community development, allowing residents to pay for essential services like roads and sewers over time. Critics argue that this practice is a form of double taxation, as homeowners are required to pay for infrastructure upfront and for ongoing maintenance for the duration of their residence.
Culverhouse says he sells only to national builders because they have deep pockets to withstand a recession. He puts an emphasis on green space that goes far beyond county requirements: 50-foot buffers along main roads, for example, compared to 10 feet required by the county.
Hugh Culverhouse Jr. owns thousands of acres that are now Palmer Ranch, a community of 30,000 residents that is still growing.
Palmer Ranch was purchased in 1910 by pioneering Florida real estate investor Bertha Palmer, a Chicago socialite and philanthropist. Hugh Culverhouse, Sr. bought 12,000 acres from the Palmer heirs in 1972. Today, Palmer Ranch ranks with Lakewood Ranch to its north and the West Villages to the south as one of the largest development areas transforming Southwest Florida. Palmer Ranch has around 11,000 homes, 30,000 residents and 700,000 square feet of commercial space. Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. donated one hundred acres to a community park in the heart of Palmer Ranch, the largest community park in the region.
Ewing
Reid Ewing, a distinguished professor of city and metropolitan planning at the University of Utah, has cited Palmer Ranch as one of six case studies about large-scale Florida developments that have used best development practices.
Lobeck
Dan Lobeck, a Sarasota attorney and head of the watchdog group Control Growth Now says, “He’s one of the rare developers who believes in reasonable controls and is sensitive to connectivity and green space.”
Culverhouse Sr.
The Senior Culverhouse, who purchased today’s Palmer Ranch, graduated from the University of Alabama in 1941 and after serving in the Army Air Corps. in World War II, he earned a law degree from his alma mater in 1947. He immediately took a job as an assistant state's attorney general, serving there for two years. After serving in the Korean War, he became legal counsel for the Internal Revenue Service, where he prosecuted many of the cases resulting from the organized crime investigations of Senator Estes Kefauver.
Culverhouse Sr. resigned from the IRS in 1962 after a decade of service, and moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he entered private practice, specializing in tax law. Although he was considered to be one of the nation's top tax lawyers, one whose cases were sometimes cited by the Supreme Court of the United States, his fortune was built on real estate investments and owner of the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers, after being awarded the Buccaneers franchise for $16 million in 1974.
Upshaw and Tagliabue
Culverhouse became one of the most influential team owners in the NFL. NFLPA President Gene Upshaw described Culverhouse as "formidable," and said that "at times, the whole league seemed to flow from this one guy." He was chairman of the NFL Finance Committee and their operations. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue credited Culverhouse for building much of the strength and unity of the modern NFL.
NFL negotiator Jack Donlan praised Culverhouse's logic, analytical, and problem-solving skills, and his critical thinking skills and, his effectiveness "at getting his way".
Trump owner of USFL New Jersey Generals
In 1984, the senior Culverhouse took on Donald Trump in 1984. He convinced other NFL owners not to resolve an antitrust lawsuit led by Trump to incorporate certain USFL teams, including Trump's New Jersey Generals, into the NFL.
The NFL went to court, and they prevailed. The jury concluded that the NFL had a monopoly but that it did not interfere with the USFL’s operations. The court awarded Trump’s USFL $1 in damages. The episode ended in a spectacular bust, both for Trump and the new league, which soon went out of business.
Joy Culverthouse a top female golfer
Skilled physicians at Joy McCann Culverhouse Center for Swallowing Disorders in Tampa
Culverhouse’s mother, Joy, was a remarkable figure in her own right, becoming the first woman to win an athletic scholarship to Louisiana State University, where she played on the men’s golf team. She went on to become one of the top female amateur players in the South, as well as a philanthropic leader and the No. 1 fan of Tampa Bay’s first pro football team.
In a recent publication, Culverhouse says his mother fortified the determination that has become one of the biggest factors in his own success. Joy Culverhouse was no softy, her son recalls, but “if something was really bothering me, I could call time out and tell her whatever it was, and she would be the sweetest and most helpful person in the world. When it was over, and I was OK, she would snap back to being Joy.”
When he recalls his father, Culverhouse cites his dedication to justice as a U.S. attorney and his insistence that his son put his country above himself. Hugh Sr. paid for his son’s undergraduate and law school under the agreement that after Culverhouse earned his degrees, he would give his first five years to government service.
Culverhouse fulfilled that agreement with his father. After law school, Culverhouse took a job with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but he grew disillusioned by the organization’s weak enforcement and landed a position in Miami, as a Assistant U.S. Federal prosecutor.
In his first year, Culverhouse tried more cases in his first year than any prosecutor in his district and won 24 of 26 cases. He continued to follow that success rate for the years he was a U.S Federal prosecutor.
While being a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office in Miami in the late 1970s, the FBI came to Culverhouse with information that Brigade 2506, a group of Cuban exiles against Fidel Castro, had put out a hit on his life.
The FBI told Culverhouse the threats were credible, targeting him and an eyewitness to a car-bombing. They gave him two options: Buy a new car, to throw off the would-be assassins or buy a gun.
At the time, Culverhouse had little money and drove a 1973 Beetle equipped only with a 1969 AM radio. A proud native son of Alabama who had been taught to handle a gun by his mother at an early age, he chose the gun. Fortunately, he never had to use it.
CULVERHOUSE SR. LACK OF FINANCIAL DISCIPLINE IS NOT FOUND IN CULVERHOUSE JR.
Culverhouse Sr., although recognized for numerous achievements and demonstrated business acumen, exhibited a lack of financial discipline.
When he died in 1994, the senior Culverhouse owed over $300 million to multiple banks. The junior Culverhouse was driven not to repeat the mistakes of his father.
Culverhouse, Jr. took his inheritance after the sale of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and purchased 7,000 acres in Palmer Ranch, eventually acquiring thousands of acres more. He resold the land for development and used the proceeds to pay off the debt, living on earnings from his investments and legal work.
“I hate debt,” Culverhouse says, “And for the last 17 to 20 years we have not had one penny of debt.” He says his net worth is now “several hundred million dollars.”
Culverhouse, being the developer behind one of the largest master-planned communities in the region, Palmer Ranch, has fought–with his words and his wallet–constantly and consistently against what he considers multiple wrongdoings impacting a variety of people and communities across Sarasota and beyond.
He has put ads in major U.S. newspapers, like the Wall Street Journal, in support of Israel and criticized the Afghanistan U.S. troop withdrawal in August 2021 under President Joe Biden.
According to a Wall Street Journal rate card, a full-page ad can cost anywhere from $180,000 to $260,000, depending on where it’s placed and other factors.
Culverhouse donated $1 million to UNICEF USA’s Protect Children of Ukraine fund and then took out a full-page ad in the March 8 edition of the Wall Street Journal challenging others to contribute as well. Culverhouse selected UNICEF USA because it has been committed to helping children and families in Ukraine for the past 25 years.
In March, Culverhouse made what he said was a one-time gift of $109,000 to United Way Sarasota to cover the cost of the helpline service after county commissioners cut funding. He said it was important for the mentally ill and elderly population. He earlier made up a $150,000 shortfall in public funding to maintain the Sarasota County Comprehensive Treatment Court program to help those with mental health disorders get into treatment programs instead of jail.
“I don’t own a boat, and I don’t own a plane,” he says. “Helping people is my boat and plane.”
JURY AGREES CULVERHOUSE DEFRAUDED BY RODRIQUEZ AND BENDERSON
For decades, Culverhouse hardly caused a ripple in local political currents. But in the spring of 2015, a startling ruling was rendered in a Sarasota County courtroom. A jury had awarded Culverhouse over $20 million in a lawsuit he filed against two prominent developers, Henry Rodriguez and Randy Benderson, in which Culverhouse accused them, along with the Sarasota County Commission, of defrauding him in a deal to develop 1,000 acres in Sarasota County. Six members of a Sarasota jury agreed and awarded Culverhouse over $20 million.
Dubensky
The decision by a six-member jury was scandalously overturned by Judge Peter Dubensky of the 12th Judicial District, which for years has been under Neal’s influence in the selection of its judges.
Culverhouse saw the decision as one more example of the established corrupt power structure sticking together, and it galvanized him.
His first target was the 12th Circuit bench, where he says he found “the Florida Constitution” being massively subverted by a “patronage system.”
Sitting judges were deciding to resign early before the qualifying period for new candidates to file—allowing Florida governors to appoint their replacements on recommendation from the 12th District Nominating Committee.
Those appointed judges, now being seated, went on to win unopposed elections, as it is rare to run against an incumbent. The last time a sitting judge had been challenged in the 12th Circuit was 2006. Former Governor Rick Scott appointed 241 judges statewide with present Governor Ron DeSantis appointing a similar number.
Fueling Culverhouse’s disturbance was that the man who has been chairman and a major influencer of the 12th Circuit Judicial Nominating Committee is Neal. The 12th Circuit includes Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties.
What is troublesome is Neal is not a lawyer. He is the only member of the 12th Judicial District Nominating Committee without a law degree.
Culverhouse challenged the corrupt system and targeted Judge Brian Iten—the incumbent who had been appointed by Governor Scott to replace Judge Dubensky, who had dismissed the $20 million judgment against Rodriguez and Benderson
Ruhl
Culverhouse successfully supported Maria Rhul running against Neal's handpicked candidate, Iten, to become a Judge in the 12th Judicial District in 2018. Culverhouse gave thousands of dollars and key advice to challenger Ruhl, a Bradenton attorney who ran against Iten.
The outcome was stunning. Ruhl became the circuit’s first Hispanic judge, capturing 63 percent of the vote over Iten, whose backers included Neal.
After Ruhl’s election, Culverhouse called to congratulate her and wish her success on the bench. Culverhouse then told her, “This is the last time you’ll ever hear from me.”
Good/Buchanan
In politics, Culverhouse has become one of Sarasota County’s leading power brokers who marches only to the beat of his own drum. In a 2018 special election, for example, he decided to back underdog Margaret Good for Florida state representative against James Buchanan, the son of longtime Sarasota Congressman Vern Buchanan. Culverhouse says he knew attorneys at the firm in which Good worked, who touted her integrity. He also thought, as a Democrat, Good would bring desperately needed diversity to an area long dominated by Republicans.
Graham/Moody
Culverhouse donated more than $100,000 in 2018 to Ashley Moody, a Republican, who was elected Attorney General and $128,000 to Gwen Graham, a Democrat who lost in the gubernatorial primary.
In another stark testament to his pragmatism, Culverhouse donated more than $30,000 to conservative political action groups such as Florida Conservatives United and $35,000 to the Democratic political action committee, New Day Florida.
Days after former President Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of fraud by a New York court, Culverhouse announced he was donating $500,000 to the Trump presidential Campaign because he thought the case was politically motivated. The former Assistant U.S. Attorney and trial attorney thought the justice system was being manipulated. “The judicial system cannot be used as a political tool,” he told the Herald Tribune. “The Democrats crossed the line in this persecution, the same I would say if the Republicans treated President Biden this way.”
Less than two months later, Culverhouse, along with his wife, Eliza, donated $107,643 to the local nonprofit Embracing Our Differences, for its annual large-scale art exhibition at Bayfront Park, which promotes inclusion, respect, and kindness. The Culverhouse gift covered a highly publicized loss of state and county grants and, while Embracing our Differences is, in theory, a non-partisan organization, there is no doubt members of that organization are not Trump supporters.
In 2016, Culverhouse spent over a million dollars attempting to legally challenge the redistricting of more than 20,000 African American voters, which was intended to support Neal and his chosen candidates.
“We’re all American. Why in the world should we allow one group of Americans, simply because of their color, to be treated differently?” Culverhouse said when asked why he was backing the lawsuit.
Knight
In the 2024 race for Sarasota County Commissioner between Tom Knight and Neil Rainford, Culverhouse opposed the Neal, Beruff, Benderson, and Jensen political machine.
Rainford received ten $1,000 contributions from Neal, Beruff, Benderson and Jensen. Knight received eleven, $1,000 contributions plus thousands more to Knight’s PAC from Culverhouse, which greatly aided Knight's victory.
Culverhouse has supported candidates other than Knight in opposition to Neal and his trio of Beruff, Benderson and Jensen handpicked candidates in the past and has been highly successful.
CULVERHOUSE IS A LANDOWNER WHO DOES IT THE RIGHT WAY
Culverhouse is not part of developers who came to Sarasota from other parts of the country to make millions on development, while supporting candidates they could stuff in their pockets to make $millions turning the Sarasota/Manatee area into a Paradise lost.
For example, as Ewing, a distinguished professor of city and metropolitan planning at the University of Utah mentioned above, "Culvererhouse' Palmer Ranch as one of six case studies about large-scale Florida developments that have used best development practices."
As Lobeck, a Sarasota attorney and head of the watchdog group Control Growth mentioned above, “He’s (Culverhouse) being one of the rare developers who believes in reasonable controls and is sensitive to connectivity and green space” -----
CULVERHOUSE INVEST $MILLIONS IN SARASOTA COMMUNITY
CULLVERHOUSE HAS DONATED MORE THAN $70 MILION TO CHARITIES OVER THE YEARS
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