At 32 years old and a second-generation homebuilder, Alex Akel really means business. A native of Delray Beach, the president of Akel Homes learned the ropes from his dad, Ramsey. The elder Akel founded the company in 1986 with a focus on master-planned communities. To date, the Palm Beach-based business has sold more than 4,000 homes throughout the region and since 2015, Alex has led day-to-day operations.
His time away from Florida has been sparse. He attended George Washington University in Washington D.C., earning an undergraduate degree in finance and international business. Shortly thereafter, he attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, earning a master’s in real estate. While in Massachusetts, he also dabbled in coursework at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Business School and MIT.
“I did leave for a bit, but I knew I was always going to come back,” he tells SFBW. “The South Florida community is really deeply engrained in my heart and core values. It is home for me, and I want to see this community thrive.”
His company is currently delivering approximately 50 homes per year, with expectations to deliver 200-plus per year in the near future. On the volume, he says “we’re in a unique position because there aren’t that many higher volume private builders in South Florida anymore, as the market is challenging to bring a new supply of homes.”
Among the company’s largest current projects, Akel says it has approximately 8,000 home sites in Port St. Lucie’s Sundance development (formerly Wilson Grove). He anticipates breaking ground on its first community of 1,100 homes this year. Port St. Lucie is “not just the fastest-growing city in the state of Florida, but one of the fastest growing in the country. It’s a great market and we’re really excited to be there,” he says.
In addition to smaller infill developments and townhouse projects in Palm Beach County, Akel Homes is selling and building Solana Bay, a community of 118 homes within the 3,000-acre master development of Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens. The first residents are moving in later this month. “The homes are stunning – they’re very contemporary and from the exterior elevations to the included premium features, they’re really complete homes,” Akel says.
On the rental front, Akel Homes is close to breaking ground on Mosaic Palms, a 187-unit rental property on Hypoluxo and Lyons roads in west Boynton Beach.
SUBHED: Meeting the homebuilding challenges
Amid these diverse projects, Akel is finding ways to navigate current homebuilding complexities.
The challenges for all area homebuilders include bringing new communities online to match the population growth and navigating the entitlement process, he says. “There needs to be broader discussions about how we can make the process of getting projects approved, more streamlined, how we can create more affordable and market-rate housing, and having initiatives that don’t increase the cost of housing.”
On inventory, he says, “We need to continue to work with county or municipal leaders to streamline the process of bringing new housing inventory to the market faster. It starts with alleviating some of the red tape. But there is a very fine line that we need to navigate where we make sure that our schools, our roads, and our water and sewer treatment plants all have sufficient capacity. Oftentimes, when we build more houses, there is a new tax base that we can tap into to fund any of these new services, and developers themselves contribute to those services through impact fees.”
Technology has become a major priority for Akel recently. One of his pride points is the launch of the myAkel.com portal for customers. The portal provides real-time updates and imagery on construction progress of every home, particularly to the benefit of out-of-state buyers. It’s all part of a concierge-style, white glove, home-building experience.
“We see buying a home as not just a ‘sign the contract and see you in 10 to 12 months’ opportunity,” he says. “We see it as an opportunity to really engage with the buyer. I’m really proud of our team and how, in really a short amount of time, we’ve become so focused on enhancing the customer experience. We are doing things that no other builder is doing from the quality of our homes to the ways in which we engage with our customers throughout the entire homebuilding process. Our goal is to provide the white glove experience you get while staying at the Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons, but for homebuilding.”
Beyond his daily business happenings, Akel is frequently out and about in the community. Habitat for Humanity remains a favorite partner and Akel has participated in CEO builds. He’s also active with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast, recently raising $110,000 for its “Man of the Year” campaign.
Under the Akel Homes umbrella, he’s also proud of a donation incentive he helped launch for the company, in which $1,000 of every home sale gets donated to a nonprofit of the buyer’s choosing, including Feeding South Florida, the Wounded Warriors Foundation and St. Jude’s. He says, “this is all just the tip of the iceberg of what we’ve been doing in the community. We’re always looking for new organizations to support.”
Beyond business, Akel calls his family “my biggest priority in life.” He is married and has a son and daughter, both under the age of five. He says, “It’s all about being there for my kids and focusing on them and their future. And that’s why we’re committed to everything we do and giving back to our community. We want our kids to have a great future.”
