The Mackle brothers - Elliott, Robert and Frank Jr. - were a group of three brothers who were real estate developers. They would popularize selling land in planned communities through installment plans in Florida creating several communities in the process. Elliott J. Mackle would be born in 1908 and died in 1978. Frank E. Mackle Jr. would be born in Atlanta in 1916 and graduated with a civil engineering degree from Vanderbilt University in 1938. Frank would die at the age of 77 in Key Biscayne on July 29, 1993. The Mackle Company would be founded in 1908 in Jacksonville by Frank E. Mackle Sr. who ran the company there before going to Miami in 1937. When he died, it would be taken over by Elliott, Robert and Frank. It would build an $18 million US Navy project in

Key West Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...

before getting into large sized residential work. Originally the brothers would follow a strategy similar to that of the Levitts during the late 1940s building subdivisions around Miami. They would start to change approaches by 1955 building large retirement orientated communities in rural parts of Florida where there was large amounts of land that was also cheap. The first installment company created by them would be the

General Development Corporation General Development Corporation, also known as GDC, was a land development company in Florida. General Development Corporation would be created in 1958 after a merger between Florida Canada Corporation and the Mackle Bros. Origins and history ...

(GDC) in 1958. It was formed as a merger between Florida Canada Corporation and Mackle Bros. The Mackle brothers would continue to lead the company until 1962 before selling the company to and taking over another company which "...had been the Cockshutt Farm Equipment Co., went through a period as C.K.P. Developments" before becoming the Deltona Corporation. Deltona would end up becoming a competitor to the GDC. The reason for there departure was because of a dispute involving the company's chairman, Gardner Cowles. Frank Mackle III joined Deltona in 1966 after he graduated from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

. Work began on developing Marco Island in 1969. The project at Marco Island would be the most ambitions project ever undertaken. It would not go over well as during the mid 1970s the Deltona Corporation would be denied permits for dredge and fill for waterfront development and would be ordered to give a refund of $38 million to those who paid for waterfront property but didn't get it. Frank E. Mackle Jr. would leave Deltona in 1986 along with Frank Mackle III. Their departure was after the company had a takeover from "a huge Minnesota utility". During a 1981–1982 recession it would have 1,200 condominiums that couldn't be sold and "was on the verge of financial collapse" when a deal with the Topeka Group (a subsidiary of Minnesota Power & Light) went through.

Communities developed

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

Citrus Springs Citrus Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in Citrus County, Florida, United States. The population was 8,622 as of the 2010 census, up from 4,157 in 2000. Geography Citrus Springs is located in northern Citrus County at (28.993539, -82 ...

*Coquina Key *

Deltona Deltona is a city in central Florida and the most populous city in Volusia County. It is located on the northern shore of Lake Monroe along the St. Johns River in central Florida. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 93,692. The c ...

* Key Biscayne *

Marco Island Marco may refer to: People * Marco (given name), people with the given name Marco * Marco (actor) (born 1977), South Korean model and actor * Georg Marco (1863–1923), Romanian chess player of German origin * Tomás Marco (born 1942), Spanish ...

Marco Shores Marco Shores-Hammock Bay is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Collier County, Florida, United States. It is southeast of Naples and north of Marco Island, and contains the Hammock Bay Golf and Country Club and the Marco Island Exec ...

* North Port * Pine Ridge * Port Charlotte * Port St. Lucie *

Seminole Woods The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...

* Spring Hill * St. Augustine Shores * Sunny Hills *

Tampa Palms Tampa Palms is a neighborhood within the New Tampa district of the city of Tampa, Florida. As of the 2010 census the neighborhood had a population of 13,515. The ZIP Codes serving the neighborhood are 33559, 33592, 33613, 33617, 33637, and 33647. ...

References

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External links

Mackle Company website

Deltona Corporation website
People from Florida

Communities developed

See also

References

External links