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by John Thomason
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scott porten The award-winning Chamber director has gone from
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hat does a homebuilder do when a housing bubble bursts and home values plummet? Riding out the crisis, changing businesses, going into debt or bankruptcy, or early retirement would be four possibilities. Drinking oneself into oblivion, while tempting, would be the least advisable option. Scott Porten, the Delray Beach homebuilder behind Porten Companies, found the best way of all to turn the real estate lemon into lemonade: He became a professional community volunteer. The Washington, D.C. native and Emory University business graduate moved to Delray to develop homes in 1985. He quickly established a lucrative niche brand, focusing on multifamily residences in a predominantly single-family market. He developed enduring luxury condos and townhouses like City Walk, the Estuary and Harbour House. Then came the bubble. “It became clear that we were headed for something,” says Porten, 50. “The last acquisition I did was in 2006, and then in ’08, I basically sold my largest land holdings. I needed something to keep me busy. Quite frankly, this town had done a lot for me. I have my home here, and I made a lot of money here; I thought it was time to give back to the community.” In the wake of the housing bubble, Porten shifted his career to community service. In 2008, he joined the board of directors for Old School Square, then the Site Plan Review and Appearance board. In 2010, he became the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Governmental Affairs committee chairman, a role for which he recently won Director of the Year at the Chamber’s 22nd annual Luminary Gala. “Scott has brought the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce a clear focus for the future,” says Kimberly Camejo, chairman of the board for the Chamber. “His business knowledge has assisted in the growth of the Governmental Affairs committee.” 34
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One of the innovations Porten pushed forward was his transformation of moribund government affairs meetings into a speaker-based format that brought the community together to hear from guests like Mary McCarty, the inspector general, the tax assessor, the supervisor of elections and other governmental power players. “On my second or third meeting, I found myself one of two people sitting at the meeting,” he recalls. “We had to rebuild that program. Now we have between 20 to 40 people at every meeting. It’s become a very vital thing, and it’s been great for me, because I’ve had the opportunity to do some public speaking, which is frankly outside my comfort level. So it was a real growth opportunity.” In addition, Porten has moved up the ranks to chairman at Old School Square, and he was instrumental in the organization’s name change to the Center for the Arts at Old School Square last fall. He helped the Center for the Arts obtain a liquor license, increased its education programming, brought more youthful content into the Crest Theatre and launched an enormously popular series of free outdoor concerts on Friday nights. Although his company isn’t building new homes, Porten’s various causes—he’s also on the Visions 2020 Committee, which projects a vision for Delray’s future, as well as on the Delray Economic Leaders Political Action Committee—equate to something like full-time work, and he often arrives home late. But when he’s not servicing his community, the husband and father of two can be found playing basketball at the gym or cheering on his kids’ soccer games. “I tend to be a very committed volunteer,” he says. “I treat [my service organizations] like a job and in many respects maybe even more seriously, because it’s not just my family that suffers if I don’t do a good job. “My personal goal is to feel like I was part of the process. I’d like to be able to have some influence over the environment I’m raising my children in.”
aaron bristol
building community homes to building communities.
march/april