BIO/CV - Rick Skelton

Richard “Rick” H. Skelton

9265 Blue Ridge Drive

Blue Ridge, GA 30513

404-550-7535 direct

www.InolaBlueRidge.com

rick@Inolablueridge.com

Skelton is a national leader in adaptive re-use and large scale planned sustainable communities. He has owned, developed and personally completed over $500,000,000 in projects/enterprises to his own account and consulted on a multitude of large-scale developments. INOLA Blue Ridge is his latest project, www.InolaBlueRidge.com. INOLA is located in the resort town of Blue Ridge Georgia. The project is an exact copy of 10 historic buildings in Williamsburg VA, such as the George Wythe Estate, The Wetherburn Tavern and the Hopewell Chapel. INOLA is listed on the Georgia Film Commission website for movie and TV shoots, https://ga.reel-scout.com/loc_detail.aspx?parent=loc_results.aspx&id=10132259&cid=42&search=&rgn=All%20Regions&rgnid=&cnty=All%20Counties&cntyid=&city=Blue%20Ridge&cityid=77&subcat=&style=&lname=&lid=&dist=&zip= . He recently was the developer in several projects in the Savannah GA area, including the 368-lot golf course community, Richmond Hill Plantation, which his group recently sold. Skelton recently sold his 322-unit Luxury Waterfront Multi-family Project to a developer for Bon Secour Township in Gulf Shores Alabama, https://www.gulfshoresal.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/1023?fileID=1739 and his boutique Nativ hotel https://businessden.com/2018/02/09/lodos-nativ-hotel-changes-hands/ in downtown Denver CO, www.nativhotels.com, so that he could focus on his hometown of Blue Ridge GA where his family has resided since the early 1700/s.

Skelton is in full development on a new urbanist town in his Atlanta ex-burb hometown of Blue Ridge Ga. INOLA Blue Ridge has many existing historically recreated structures from Williamsburg Va., such as the Wythe estate and mansion with four destination wedding venues, 7 restaurants, retail stores, offices, Wetherburn Tavern organic restaurant & Inn, a historic church, Post Office, stables, lake and more. Planned is more than 50,000 SF in retail, concert venue, 35 lake front cottages, 28 estate homes, 60 town homes and condos, spa and more. www.InolaBlueRidge.com

Growing up in the family pharmacy and medical business in N. GA, he learned much about the day to day operations of retail, medical and general business practices. Learning much of design, architecture and art from his studies in France in the late 1980’s. He began his career in residential real estate in 1989 as a developer of urban adaptive re-use historic loft projects in urban Atlanta. https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2000/05/15/smallb4.html beginning with 190 Walker Lofts. He through his company Skelton Development, LLC he developed Atlanta’s first conventionally financed loft apartment and loft condominium projects in the early 1990’s; he has 12 buildings, such as the William Oliver Lofts, Deere and GE Lofts in Atlanta & Grove Arcade in Asheville NC, on the National Register of Historic Places, with funding and I.T.C partner through Chevron TCI and others. Skelton provided the housing and full service hospitality for many fortune 500 companies during the 1996 Olympics, including NIKE, Sprint, the NBA and Time Warner. In 1997, he founded Skelton Development, LLC, www.skeltondevelopment.com and currently serves as the Company’s Sole Manager. Skelton specializes in the creation of environmentally responsible mixed-use luxury communities that preserve and work with nature and the human scale. Beach, Condo, vineyards/resort and Hotel high-rise development and design work of Skelton blends elegance, value and LEEDS design; he has received 17 national homebuilder’s awards to date. Skelton has been named “one of the most influential residential and commercial real estate individuals in Atlanta” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle 2001-2006 consecutively. Skelton was named runner-up as Atlanta Business Person of the Year by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce for 2000.

Skelton’s development reach is over many states, including, urban, resort mountain regions including Asheville and Cashiers North Carolina and Miami Florida among others.

He conceptualized The Indies, a beautiful 68-unit high rise on the sands of the Gulf Coast in Fort Morgan, Alabama. The complex was built during Hurricane Ivan and three other hurricanes. It came in on time and on budget. The units were 100% presold and netted Skelton over $11 million. All were sold by the time the CO was issued. https://www.beachguide.com/GulfShores/TheIndies .

Skelton was a managing partner in the Bon Secour Village project in Gulf Shores Alabama, https://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2006/02/06/story6.html . Skelton teamed up with Seaside’s urban genius land planner Andres Duany (DPZ) for the development of a neo-traditional New Orleans-Acadian inspired urban waterfront village complete with residential, commercial, office, marina, hotel, golf and more on the 952 acres and a mile of waterfront. Bon Secour Village is the home to the 2007 Coastal Living Magazine Show House. The latest sub-phase being the Bon Secour Township community which he sold.

Skelton was a co-founder of Georgia Center for Foreign Investment and Development (GCFID), www.GCFID.com. This entity utilizes and Federal EB5 program to access foreign nationals funds for U.S ventures through jobs creation GCFID is a Regional Center for the entire state of Georgia as approved by USCIS.

Skelton is a founding member and past head of The Alabama Motorsports Park. He partnered with Dale Jr. and Kelly Earnhardt to develop a motorsports, planned community and entertainment facility in the world; located in Mobile Alabama on more than 3,000 acres. The facility has been placed on hold due to a slow down in the economy. The group still retains the land with entitlements. There is new interest in selling the land to an international amusement park group. The project is designed four race tracks of varying disciplines, condos, condo-tels, Technology Park, amusement park, luxury RV, off road track, luxury racing country club, racing shops, traditional neighborhood development(s), a championship waterfront golf course, educational and sporting facilities, music halls, civic center, big box retail, racing museum and more. Skelton and his fellow Board of Managers retained and Skelton managed, the pre-dev. services of HOK Sport, APEX Sport, KPMG and Turner Construction. Skelton completed his work for the partnership as the land planner and design partner; this is now a passive small investment.

Hyper Sport Racing is a business and passion for Skelton blending development as in the AMP project and the visceral experience of a race driver. https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/rick-skelton/ Skelton with his partners’ actor Patrick Dempsey (Enchanted and Grey’s Anatomy actor) and co-driver Joe Foster Hyper Sport has emerged as a preeminent leader in the road racing.

Skelton and Dempsey. L to R, Joe Foster, Patrick Dempsey and Rick Skelton

Skelton competes in such famed races as the 12 Hours of Sebring, Petit LeMans, Miami Grand Prix and The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. The team won the 2008 Grand AM team, manufacturer and driver championship. They placed second for ‘07 in the Koni Challenge professional racing series. On November 20th, 2010, Skelton won the world’s most grueling off-road race, the Baja 1000, https://www.al.com/sports/2010/12/alabama_drivers_win_at_baja_10.html , winning the race in record setting time and taking 2nd place finishes in ’07, ‘08 & ’11 and 3rd in 2015, in the BC class. Skelton with Clint Guthrie raced many years for Children’s Healthcare of Alabama, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRynZZ74tG4 .

Green Energy: Mr. Skelton was the first non-government, non-utility person in Georgia to have an electric vehicle in 1999-2000, having partnered with GA Power and the Southern Company on a pioneering project for EV-PV. He has been an active board member and a business development specialist for several companies, including COMAR Energy, an Atlanta-based renewable energy company focused on bio-fuels, as well as Nexus Energy Center, a Huntsville-based government think tank consisting of major aerospace and technology firms, whose mission is to create energy security for the Huntsville, AL. Skelton was a founding partner with Retired 3-Star General James Pillsbury in Redstone Energy Group; now merged into EDT Energy in Marietta GA., www.edtinc.net EDT Energy provides energy security solutions to the military and corporations through alternative sources such as PV.

Technology: Skelton is immersed in eco-friendly building design using LEED certification and cutting edge technology. Skelton facilitated the U.S. patent for a radio/GSP triangulation system for tracking lost animals (PETRACK). The application has unlimited expansion potential such as the location and safe return of lost children or Alzheimer patients. Patent was sold to Qualcomm in 2013. Skelton founded in 2001 and sold in 2007, HyperBand broadband company, to key employees. There were over 25,000 subscribers in apartment homes. He is a co-patent holder for automotive patents with MotionLite, LLC.

Speaking engagements and social activism: A dedicated member of the community; on any given day you are likely to find Skelton present at a meeting involving issues that impact the cities of Blue Ridge, Atlanta or Gulf Shores AL, speaking to groups of business graduate students at Emory University, or working on the construction of Atlanta’s first “no-kill” animal shelter, Daisy Hill Pet Foundation, that he co-founded. Skelton is a co-founder of PEACE Energy Foundation (Peace, Energy And Conservation of the Environment) with its focus on renewable energy for the home, transportation and buildings of scale. Skelton has 13- year old twins Brooks and Addison, and a 15-year-old daughter Carlyle. Skelton’s mantra is family and community intertwined with a balance of the highest professional and creative quality business venture.

EDUCATION

• A. Economics – University of Georgia, 1986, https://alumnius.net/the_university_of_ge-8191-year-1986
• Graduate studies – Architecture & design, L'Ecole des Arts - Lacoste, France – 1987

PERSONAL· Born – 4/30/63 in Cleveland, Tennessee

• Hometown, Blue Ridge, Georgia
• Children: Daughter, Carlyle Cydney, Brooks Houston and Daughter, Addison Layne
• Height, 6’2”
• Weight, 202 lbs
• Long term relationship with Susie Council. Council also is part owner of INOLA Blue Ridge

CIVIC, PERSONAL and AWARDS:

GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENTS, Current and Past

· Chair of the Blue Ridge Ga, Planning and Zoning Board,https://www.cityofblueridgega.gov/ZoningBuilding.aspx

• Chair of the Blue Ridge GA, Zoning Appeals Board. https://www.cityofblueridgega.gov/ZoningBuilding.aspx

• President of the Board, Atlanta Municipal Market (Sweet Auburn Curb Market)
• Committee Chair to restructure the City of Atlanta Building Permit Process: Mayor Shirley Franklin and Council Member Rob Pitts appointment.

MEMBERSHIPS

• Member, Fannin County-Blue Ridge Chamber of Commerce,
• Blue Ridge GA Business Association

• Georgia Chamber of Commerce
• Blue Ridge Lake Civic Association
• PADI, scuba diving association
• International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), Pro-Race Driver Association, license
• Grand American Road Racing Association, license
• Sports Car Club of America
• C.O.R.E Off Road Racing Association member and license
• Historic Sports car racing association, license
• FIA; class B racing license

PERSONAL AWARDS

• Atlanta Chamber of Commerce/Atlanta Business Chronicle – Runner up for Small Business Person of the Year, 2000
• Listed in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Who’s Who” in Residential Real Estate, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
• Listed in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Who’s Who” in Commercial Real Estate, 2000 and 2001.
• Atlanta Business Chronicle, 100 Most Influential Persons of 2001
• Georgia Trend Magazine’s 2000 “40 under 40”. Listed as one of Georgia’s 40 most influential people less than 40 years of age, 2000.
• Named an Outstanding Young Atlanta in 1995 by Outstanding Atlanta and The Atlanta Business Chronicle
• Listed in Georgia Trend Magazine as a “Notable Georgian”, 2001
• Ronald Regan award for public service

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS

• 10th Anniversary, Coastal Living Magazine, show house of the year, Bon Secour Village, 2007
• The National Homebuilder’s Association 2007 – Professionalism Awards
  • Gold Award Winner - Best Regional Logo – Bon Secour Village
  • Gold Award Winner– Best Sales Center – Bon Secour Village
• The Atlanta Homebuilder’s Association 2003 – Professionalism Awards
  • Gold Award Winner - Best Print Ad Magazine – The William Oliver
  • Gold Award Winner– Best Advertising Campaign – The William Oliver
• The National Homebuilder’s Association, 2002
  • Silver Award Winner – Deere Lofts; Best Logo, Best Brochure, and Best Signage.
• The Atlanta Homebuilder’s Association 2001 - Professionalism Awards
  • Gold Award Winner – Deere Lofts: Best Marketing Campaign
• The Atlanta Homebuilder’s Association, 2001
  • Silver Award Winner, Deer Lofts, signage
• The Atlanta Homebuilder’s Association, 2000
  • Gold Award Winner – GE Lofts: Best Marketing Campaign, Best Signage, Best Advertising; South Park Lofts: Best Model.
• Creative Loafing Magazine’s 2000, Reader’s Choice Award,
  • “Best Loft Project in Atlanta” for GE Lofts.
• The Atlanta Business Chronicle's Best Rehabilitation Project for 1995:
  • The William Oliver Building
• Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation 1996 Awards:
  • The William Oliver, Outstanding Rehabilitation Award
  • The GE Lofts, Award of Merit
• Atlanta Downtown Partnership - The Resurgens Award
  • Best Adaptive Re-use Project of 1993

PAST EXPERIENCE and CIVIC

• Board Member, Georgia and Atlanta Apartment Associations
• Executive Committee Member, Government Affairs, Atlanta and Georgia Apartment Associations
• Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, CEO Committee chair/ Small Business Council co-chair
• Board Member, The Georgia Trust for Public Land

• Gulf Shores Alabama Chamber of Commerce
• GUMBO, Gulf Coast business development organization

• Urban Design Commission; land use committee appointee
• Board Chair of City Council and Mayor appointed board to redesign Atlanta’s building permit process
• Board President, The Atlanta City Municipal Market, SACM 1998-2004 (Mayoral Appointment)
• Chairman, Atlanta Apartment Association, Independent Residential Owner’s Council (2yrs)
• Board Member, The Georgia Homebuilder’s Association

• Co-Chairman for The Atlanta City Council's Commission on Downtown Loft Housing
• Board of Advisors and Fund Raising Chair for Outstanding Atlanta

• Board Director and founder, @tlanta Broadband
• Urban Land Institute, Inclusionary Zoning Task Force
• Board Advisor, Brainworks Ventures
• Board Director, Lifepliance/LifeWire

• Catalyst Magazine, C-100 Board of Most Influential Persons in Atlanta

• Board of Directors - Atlanta New Century School
• Board Member and Strategic Leadership Committee Member, Rialto Center for Performing Arts

• Past Member, Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games, Housing Advisory Board.

• Castleberry Hill Neighborhood representative to "The Atlanta Empowerment Advisory Board", $250 million urban renewal program, Atlanta
• The Sierra Club, Mobile, AL Chapter

• National Trust For Historic Preservation
• National Lobbyist to the Georgia Historic Trust for Preservation
• Friends of Lake Glenville, NC
• New Zealand Rally Racing Association
• Fort Morgan Alabama Civic Association

• The Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce
• Central Atlanta Progress. Membership solely comprised of executive level personnel. Co-chair, committee on urban revitalization and housing.

• Urban Land Institute, Southern Council
• Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
• St. Phillip’s Episcopal Church, Buckhead
• The Buckhead Church
• Sandy Springs Unique Vehicle, Museum (Board President)

• The Diplomats
• Project Open Hand

• Co-Chair, Central Atlanta Progress, Housing Task Force
• Co-Chair, Condominium Board, Greater Atlanta Home Builder’s Association
• Georgia and Atlanta Apartment Association(s) PAC Fund and Governmental Affairs Committee
• Co-Director and Board Member, The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Forum

• Atlanta Downtown Partnership; Co-Chair Annual Loft Housing Tour and Festival 1996-2002.
• Past President of Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association (2 terms)
• Past Committee Member, Citizens for a Better Government, Atlanta

• Board Member, Atlanta Homeless Service Center

• The Buckhead Coalition
• Terminus, business club
• Fairlie - Poplar Housing Task Force
• Atlanta Magazine’s Buckhead Tour of Homes Committee

RACING

• First Place, Baja 1000 BC class, 2010 (19th overall); second place, 2007, 2008 & 2011 and 3rd 2015
• 2002 Panoz Pro series, second place season championship
• 1993 Class champion in Historic Sports Car Racing (HSR)
• Personal career total of 17 first place, 22 second place and 5 third place and over 30 top ten finishes
• Team owner, 4 first place, 5 second place, 1 third place and 1, second place season championship, Koni Challenge 2007, first place 2008 Koni Championship Grand-am (Driver, Owner, and Mfg Champions with partners Joe Foster and actor Patrick Dempsey).

MAJOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• NPR Radio on New Urbanism
• Greater Atlanta Home Builder’s Association
• Morris Brown University, MBA, Real Estate
• Georgia Tech, Engineer School of Design
• Emory University, MBA lecture series
• Urban Land Institute
• Emory Business School, MBA program
• Georgia Board of Realtors CREW, Annual meeting keynote speaker
• Central Atlanta Progress Housing Conference, 2 years
• Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Annual Breakfast Meeting, Keynote Speaker