Mattamy Homes on Monday announced that Rick Severance has joined the organization as president of its West Villages Division in Venice, Florida.
Severance will be responsible for all aspects of development and the phased sale of property at West Villages.
"Rick comes to Mattamy with a unique track record and understanding of customer focused master-planned communities in Florida," said Pete Skelly, CEO of Mattamy Homes U.S. "His talents and background will allow us to build upon the achievements already produced by our West Villages team and position us to deliver on the company's vision of a community and town center offering residents access to a wealth of housing, amenity, dining, shopping and recreational activity choices."
West Villages is a 9,650-acre property in south Sarasota County, Florida that Mattamy Homes and its minority partners purchased in 2014 (then known as Thomas Ranch). The community will eventually include some 20,000 homes (including Mattamy's Renaissance at West Villages) as well as parks, recreation areas and three million square feet of non-residential space.
Rick was most recently the president of Babcock Ranch, where he was hired to launch the first solar-powered town in the U.S., entitled for 19,000 development units and six million square feet of commercial space. Previously, Rick was the SVP of planning, development and operations for St. Joe Company, where he led the company's residential and commercial portfolio including design, sales and brokerage operations for 15 master-planned communities and one million square feet of commercial and retail holdings. His experience also includes work as the CEO of New Vector Limited, a highly successful consulting firm for numerous new urban and master-planned resort communities and commercial town centers. His consulting career was preceded by his position as CEO of the Seaside Community Development Company, where he was responsible for the direction and development of Seaside, Florida, the award-winning town named TIME Magazine's Development of the Decade. Rick has a business degree with a concentration in hospitality, marketing and real estate from Florida State University.
"I am extremely excited about being part of one of the nation's largest-selling master-planned communities," said Severance. "Here at West Villages I have the opportunity to work with an outstanding team where I can layer in my place-making experience to further enhance the vision for this special development."
