Meet the Arizona developer who builds “frat houses for families”

Michael Meldman’s journey has taken him from the beer pong table to the negotiating table. The Arizona-based developer, once “the epitome of a frat boy,” now runs Discovery Land Company, which made over $1 billion in sales last year.

The firm owns 18 private resorts around the country, most of those in California and Arizona.

A few are further afield, such as in Hawaii and Southampton.

Homes at the firm’s developments, which Meldman describes as “frat houses for families,” go for between $1 million and $50 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Meldman’s extracurricular experiences at Stanford University informed his approach as a developer, he told the newspaper. “I am one of the best beer-pong players in the world,” he said.

“A lot of these guys who made a lot of money don’t have fun and don’t know how to have fun. We show them how to have fun,” Meldman said.

Meldman frequently buys homes in his new developments. Then, he sells them when he begins the next project.

Two of his current homes – a nine-bedroom at Discovery Land’s Los Cabos developer and a 7,900-square-foot pad at its Bahamas community – contain custom beer pong tables, one of which cost $6,000.

Meldman is “a very civilized frat boy now,” his son Hunter told the Journal. [WSJ] – Ariel Stulberg