food restaurant,” he says. “The pay was horrible, but his sales pitch closed the deal. His exact words were ‘we aren’t making any money, but all of our waitresses are students from Mary Washington College and we’re having a great time.’ “After spending four years at a military college that hadn’t admitted women yet, I made the only logical decision a 21-year-old boy could make. I left South Boston the next day for Fredericksburg.” One for the team Sompayrac has lived there since then with the exception of a couple stints during which he traveled for work. He currently resides in the Lee’s Hill subdivision of Spotsylvania County — the first project he worked on after entering the real estate business — with his wife, Rose, and their two sons, Win, 10, and Jackson, 8. Rand and Rose met on a golf course and before having children they traveled and played on courses from Scotland and Ireland to Hawaii. Weekends now, however, are largely occupied watching Win play soccer. “We are still encouraging Jackson to find his teamwork sport,” Rand says. “We both feel it is critical that children need to experience the team concept — everyone pulling in the same direction to achieve a common goal. Consequently, our golf games have suffered, but we are thoroughly enjoying our boys and their activities.” Real estate and Rand Sompayrac didn’t enter real estate development until 1995. He ran a restaurant and banquet facility in Virginia Beach for a while and did contract work for the government on weapons systems. “Secret stuff,” he says. A friend steered him to real estate and a job as director of residential sales and marketing for Hazel Land Cos. While there, he successfully marketed two of the largest master-planned communities in the Fredericksburg area — Lee’s Hill of Virginia and Salem Fields — while increasing yearover-year sales by double digits every year from 1995 to 2002. He left Hazel and started Belmont at Carmel Church LLC, which developed a 300-unit community between Richmond and Fredericksburg that sold out in four years. He followed that by starting his own company, Rand Land Inc., a land acquisition and development company. “It’s a small operation,” he says, “but January/February 2009
I hope to continue what I’ve been doing — everything from purchasing land and rezoning to delivering improved lots and buildings.” There is no reason to think he won’t be successful, despite the challenging economy. Sompayrac has faced adversity before and turned it in his favor. As president of FABA in 2001, he rallied the local building industry troops when Stafford County sought to stymie growth by limiting reviews of building permits to two a day. That resulted in a four-month
backup. Sompayrac’s response was to hold a barbeque in the courthouse parking lot for builders and their subcontractors. “The turnout was unbelievable,” he says. “When it came time to enter the public hearing, the fire marshal had to restrict admission.” The county finally reversed course. “We won,” Sompayrac says. And he’s been winning ever since. (Robin Brinkley is a free-lance writer and educator living in Virginia Beach.) VAB
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Virginia Builder 9