Industry Insider: ShoDeen Inc.
Just about everywhere one looks in the Fox Valley, one sees the legacy of Kent Shodeen — from residential developments like Woodland Hills in Batavia, Mill Creek in Geneva and Fox Chase in St. Charles, to hotels like The Herrington Inn in Geneva and Fairfield Inns in Naperville and St. Charles, to office buildings, apartment complexes and commercial developments.
ShoDeen Inc. and Kent Shodeen, in particular, have been one of the driving forces behind the development of the Fox Valley over the past 50 years.
“I have always been 100 percent invested in real estate. But I have diversified within real estate, building single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, apartments, hotels, office buildings and commercial developments,” said Shodeen, 73.
This type of diversification seemed a sensible hedge against downturns like the one we are currently experiencing, he said.
“Many of my homebuilder friends diversified by taking their home-building operations to other cities like Phoenix. But I chose to stay in the same geographic area and just diversify into different types of real estate,” Shodeen said. “Know your territory and know the people. That was my feeling.”
So he has confined his activities to Kane County, specifically Geneva, St. Charles, Batavia, Elgin, Aurora and Elburn. Recently, however, he has branched out to DeKalb and has two new communities planned there.
Interestingly, Shodeen’s attachment to the area did not begin in childhood. He actually grew up on Chicago’s South Side.
He and his wife, Joan, moved to Batavia as newlyweds because many of the people who vacationed in Lake Geneva, near his father’s vacation home there, were from Batavia and his association with them convinced him to move to the Fox Valley community.
“The Valley has been a wonderful spot to do business because the people are nice and the towns are good to work with,” he said.
What is your dream house?#147;I have two dream homes. My wife of 51 years and I live in a condominium in the attic of The Herrington Inn, overlooking the Fox River in Geneva. We love it. Then we also have a home that we love in Lake Geneva, Wis.#148;What is your favorite home amenity?#147;An elevator.#148;History of the firm:Shodeen, chief executive officer of ShoDeen Inc., graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in biology, married his sweetheart and began working two jobs. He sold millwork during the day and made evening calls, selling life insurance at night.Beginning in high school and all through college, he worked as a laborer on various construction sites, working for businesses that did everything from fraternity house remodeling in Evanston to constructing prefabricated houses in Orland Park. As a younger child, he had also helped his father built their summer home in Lake Geneva.#147;In both cases, I was very observant and learned a great deal. So, in 1961 at the age of 23, I bought a lot in Batavia, borrowed $500 from my folks and started to build a house for Joan and me.#148;But he only got as far as having the foundation in and someone came along, looked at the construction plans and bought the house. So he bought another lot on the next street and the same thing happened. Before he knew it, Shodeen was a homebuilder and ShoDeen Inc. was born. In fact, two years later, he was purchasing whole blocks and developing them, using his own crews.ShoDeen#146;s first subdivision was Woodland Hills in Batavia. Carriage Crest in Batavia followed around 1965.In 1967 he began to branch out, building his first apartment complex, Kenston Court near the Geneva Golf Club, which he turned into condominiums about ten years ago and no longer owns.Wessel Court apartments on Prairie Street in Geneva came next. He purchased the Wessel farm and turned the old barn into the new community#146;s recreation center and saved the old farmhouse by relocating it.Next he turned the old Collins homestead in St. Charles into Fox Chase. Several companies built homes there during the mid-1970s, but ShoDeen handled the midlevel price range homes.By the mid-1980s he was building about 600 homes at Geneva East, during a recession that Shodeen said was worse than this current recession in some ways, and less severe in other ways.#147;Interest rates then got up to 21 percent. But the recession back then didn#146;t last as long as this one, and housing came back much quicker then.#148;Mill CreekSoon thereafter, ShoDeen assembled a total of 2,100 acres west of Geneva to build Mill Creek, his premiere development, which consists of single-family homes, apartments and a small amount of commercial, as well as two golf courses, two schools, two churches, 127 acres of preserved wetlands; 195 acres of parks, biking and walking trails; and a community center with swimming pool. It has won numerous awards and homes are still being built there.What is your philosophy?#147;Do what you enjoy because that is what you are going to be good at. I take pride in working hard and playing hard, too.#147;I feel lucky that I found something to do that I enjoy so much. I continue to work, primarily on land acquisition, planning and financing, because you can only play so much golf or do so much skiing.#148;What are the biggest changes you have seen in the business?#147;I think that today it would really be hard for someone to do what I did 50 years ago. I didn#146;t have any money. I borrowed that $500 from my parents. You couldn#146;t do that today. The business is so much more capital intensive today.#147;Over the years I reinvested in the business and I took a lot of educated chances. Some paid off and some didn#146;t. And I paid attention to my business. I was aware of the trends and what people were looking for at any given time. You have to know your business and stay on top of it.#148;At the height of the market, ShoDeen Residential was selling between 200 and 250 homes per year. Now that has dropped to between 35 and 45 per year.#147;The commercial and hospitality parts of the business have made a comeback in the last six to ten months and apartment rentals are very strong. But housing is still lagging.#148;The Shodeen family:All of Kent and Joan#146;s four children are actively involved in the business. Their son, Eric, runs ShoDeen Management, which manages the hotels, apartments and commercial properties. Their two daughters, Beth and Anna, both work in the business part time. Oldest son Craig still participates in the firm#146;s strategic planning and has lots of input, but he has also branched out on his own, building custom homes under the #147;Sjodin#148; name, which is the Swedish spelling of Shodeen.Future plans:#147;We see a very good future for rentals, so we are starting several new apartment complexes. We are also expanding to DeKalb with two projects under development there and have a new project, Elburn Station, in the zoning process in Elburn.#148;For more information about ShoDeen Inc., visit www.shodeenhomes.com. 641481Mill Creek, a 2,100-acre subdivision west of Geneva, is the premiere development of ShoDeen Inc.