Jacksonville hosted Florida’s first-ever Parade of Homes 50 years ago. Northeast Florida Builders Association Past President William C. “Bill” Demetree started the Parade in 1954.
“The association was small back then,” Demetree, the 1950 president, said from his office in Orlando, where he moved in 1962. “We had about 150 members. At our first Parade of Homes, we had 12 homes entered.”
The Demetree name is a familiar one at NEFBA and among Florida home builders. Bill’s brother Jack C. Demetree served as NEFBA president in 1969. Both brothers, along with their uncle Jack A. Demetree, were also presidents of the Florida Home Builders Association, and all three are inductees in the Florida Housing Hall of Fame.
Bill, 82, and Jack, 76, continue to be actively involved in their various companies, including Demetree Builders in Orlando and Demetree Brothers in Jacksonville.
Bill always felt strongly about the Association,” said brother Jack. “He always said you could accomplish so much more working together as a group than you can alone.”
A U.S. Air Force aviator and World War II veteran, Bill Demetree attended Georgia Tech and entered the construction business in 1945. Two years later, he founded Demetree Builders Inc. in Jacksonville. The company’s early efforts focused on affordable housing projects in various areas of the Southeast.
After commuting between Jacksonville and Orlando for five years to accommodate his son’s need for special education, Demetree moved to Orlando to direct the company’s business in the rapidly expanding central Florida real estate market.
“I hated to leave the association and my good friends in Jacksonville, but the commute was difficult,” he said. “We already had an office in Orlando, so it seemed the best thing to do.”
When Walt Disney World was only a gleam in Walt’s eye, Bill Demetree had already built a prosperous real estate network in Central and Northeastern Florida. In fact, Demetree and his partners sold 12,400 acres of land to Disney for what is now the Magic Kingdom.
During the ensuing boom, Demetree-owned development and construction companies completed more than 13,000 hotel rooms, thousands of multifamily units, dozens of mixed-use commercial projects and thousands of residential homes.
Demetree continues to be involved in apartments, hotels and other construction projects through related entities.
In addition to being a NEFBA past president, Demetree is a past president of the Florida Home Builders Association (1956). He was inducted into the Florida Housing Hall of Fame in 2002. He is a former member of the Florida Council of 100 and a former chairman of the board for the Orlando Regional Healthcare System, John Young Museum and Science Center, Catholic Social Service and a former trustee for Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Town in Omaha, Neb.
Demetree’s nomination to the FHBA Hall of Fame cited his passionate pursuit of better housing for more than half a century: “In summary, Bill Demetree has passionately pursued better housing from a comprehensive standpoint using imagination and innovation for nearly 55 years. His mission always has been much greater than building shelter. His devotion to better housing, though philosophically based, required a great deal of compassion, intelligence and hard work. The hard proof of his career can be seen in the thousands of ‘better housing’ products that exist not only in Florida, but also throughout the world.”
When asked what challenges the young NEFBA organization faced in 1954, Demetree answered without hesitation, “To provide affordable housing.”
Demetree’s daughter handles the day-to-day operation of Demetree Builders, while he continues to work on affordable housing projects for the company’s corporate offices in Orlando.