Renowned developers of successful master planned communities.
Kitson & Partners is a Florida company headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens that develops, builds, markets and manages award-winning, environmentally sensitive master-planned communities.
The company has an established record of conscientious master planning and development in Florida. Kitson & Partners communities include Ibis Golf & Country Club located in West Palm Beach, which neighbors the beautiful Grassy Water Nature Preserve, and Grande Champion, an 1,100-acre residential community located in Daytona Beach, Florida, which utilizes pristine wetlands to enhance its natural ambience.
Meet Kitson & Partners
Sydney W. Kitson
Chairman / Chief Executive Officer / Founding Partner
Sydney W. Kitson is Chairman and CEO of Kitson & Partners, a Florida-based real estate company specializing in the creation, development and management of master-planned communities, commercial properties, resort properties and golf courses.
Kitson is a graduate of Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. Kitson had a notable career in the National Football League playing offensive guard for both the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys. Upon his retirement from professional football, he began his career in real estate by founding a company that from 1986 to 1992 was responsible for the development and sale of residential communities, commercial properties, retail stores, medical offices and senior housing units. In 1992 he helped create the residential division of Gale & Wentworth and became its President and Chief Operating Officer in 1996. From 1996 through 1999 he was responsible for overseeing the development of numerous successful master-planned communities including Cherry Valley (Montgomery Township, NJ) and Ibis Golf & Country Club (West Palm Beach, FL). He founded Kitson & Partners with Richard Brockway in 2000, locating the firm’s company headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
In 2006 Kitson completed the historic purchase of Babcock Ranch in Southwest Florida, encompassing more than 92,000 acres – an area five times the size of the island of Manhattan. Over 80% of the original land purchase, some 73,000 acres within Charlotte and Lee counties, has been preserved by the State of Florida and Lee County in the largest single land preservation agreement in the state’s history. On the remaining land Kitson & Partners will build an extraordinary, sustainable, environmentally-friendly green community where residents will live, work, learn and play amidst the natural splendor of Florida’s undeveloped wilderness. Babcock Ranch is an exceptional example of environmental preservation and responsible growth.
Kitson & Partners also currently owns and operates numerous retail shopping centers throughout Florida totaling more than 1.6 million square feet. In addition, Kitson & Partners is developing another 8.6 million square feet of retail, office and industrial space in the Daytona Beach, Orlando and Southwest Florida markets.
Syd Kitson is an active member of the Urban Land Institute, lectures at Princeton University, and sits on the Policy Advisory Board for the Florida Solar Energy Center. He is also on the Board of Directors of Florida Gulf Coast University Foundation, the Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium and the Grassy Waters Preserve, a 20-square mile wildlife sanctuary in West Palm Beach, Florida. Kitson is also a member of the NFL Alumni Association and the National Football League Players Association. In 2000, Syd received the Rainbow Award from the Adam Walsh Children’s Foundation.
Richard S. Brockway
Vice Chairman / Founding Partner
Richard Brockway, a co-founder of Kitson & Partners, has a diverse background in marketing, management, entertainment and real estate.
In 1982 Richard was a founding partner of Dalbro Development Corporation, a residential real estate company that designed, built and marketed luxury homes on the north shore of Long Island. Brockway was also the founder of Brockway Television Corporation, an award-winning television production company which produced programming for all four major television broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS), as well as many national cable networks (Arts & Entertainment Network, The Discovery Channel, The Travel Channel and The Learning Channel). In addition, Brockway's company introduced numerous Fortune 500 companies to transactional programming. Brockway’s clients included Johnson & Johnson, Citibank, General Motors, Time Warner, Smith Barney, Black & Decker, Kodak, First Brands, Prudential, General Foods, DuPont, Merck, MCA/Universal and many others. In 1993 Brockway formed a joint venture with the Interpublic Group of Companies, one of the world’s largest advertising agency holding companies, to produce paid commercial programs for Fortune 500 companies and national advertisers. The joint venture was fully acquired by Western International Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of IPG, in May, 1996.
Since 1996 Richard has worked closely with Syd Kitson in creating, developing and implementing all strategic planning for Kitson & Partners and its affiliated companies. Brockway is a member of the Board of Directors of the Joseph C. Prince Entrepreneurship Program at Stetson University's School of Business and is on the Board of Advisors of Renaissance Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Charles W. Desanti
Managing Senior Partner
Recognized as one of the top planners and project managers in the Eastern United States, Chuck DeSanti has more than thirty years experience in land use planning, entitlements and management of large, complex real estate and mixed use projects.
As Managing Senior Partner of Kitson & Partners, Chuck has been responsible for new business development and management since joining the Company in 2000. He is currently managing the land use planning and entitlement process for establishing a new 17,500-acre community on a portion of Babcock Ranch in Charlotte County, Florida.
Prior to joining Kitson & Partners, Chuck founded a real estate consulting firm where he developed a long standing business relationship with the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund. In 2001, Morgan Stanley and Kitson & Partners forged a strategic business alliance which continues today.
Early in his career Chuck developed expertise and experience in land use and environmental planning at the local, county and regional levels, and this exposure to the public sector has been a key to Chuck’s unusual effectiveness in leading projects through planning, zoning, permitting and regulatory approvals at the local, county, state and federal levels. Chuck received both his Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Texas A&M University.
Thomas M. Hoban, Jr.
Managing Partner
Tom Hoban has extensive experience in the real estate industry and a broad understanding of the financial markets. Tom's primary responsibilities include managing existing Kitson & Partners Communities real estate investments as well as expanding the Kitson & Partners franchise through the acquisition of additional master planned communities and other real estate investments.
Prior to becoming a member of the Kitson & Partners team, Tom spent eight years in New York City as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, where he most recently served as Vice President of U.S. Acquisitions for the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund (MSREF). During his career on Wall Street, Tom worked on both the agency and principal side of the real estate business and oversaw approximately $9 billion of real estate mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions and principal investment and development. Over the past five years Tom focused solely on real estate investment and development, spending the majority of his time executing commercial and residential real estate transactions. While working for MSREF, Tom spearheaded the formation of Morgan Stanley's joint venture with Kitson & Partners, and he was instrumental in executing the closing of Ibis Golf & Country Club in West Palm Beach, and Grande Champion in Daytona Beach, Florida. Tom graduated cum laude from University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Computer Applications.
Click Here to Meet the Rest of the Kitson & Partners Team >