Navigating Prosperity

Over nearly three quarters of a century, the De Laney Company has helped countless local family businesses grow and thrive. 

by Kaija Wilkinson

Over its 74 years, the De Laney Company has risen with the tides of change — “migrations of prosperity” as Robin De Laney, the youngest of four sons of company founder Chris De Laney, puts it — as the fortunes of the Mobile Bay area have shifted, driven by factors such as the closure of major economic engines and devastating hurricanes. Misfortunes, more often than not, however, present opportunities, and the De Laney Company, as a small-business lender, has helped countless Gulf Coast families realize them. Prime examples of game-changing misfortunes include the closure of Brookley Air Force Base in 1969 and Hurricane Frederick in 1979, which led to the rise of West Mobile and Baldwin County, respectively. All along the way, the De Laney Company, now in its third generation of family leadership and a central location in Daphne, has provided business loans of up to $5 million. It became the first small-business investment company in Alabama licensed by the U.S. Small Business Administration in the early 1970s. Robin De Laney observes: 

“The success of Mobile and Baldwin counties over the last century is often built on the backs of many family businesses. Large and small, many generations of families have cherished the opportunity to live and work along coastal Alabama. This fertile crescent of the upper Gulf Coast holds thousands of family business stories.” 

One of these, of course, is that of the De Laney Company itself.

A “Very Mobile” History

The company traces its beginnings to Landmark Hall, a historic home at 1005 Government Street in Downtown Mobile purchased by Chris De Laney in 1963 from the family who built the Cawthon Hotel on Bienville Square. The three-story house was constructed by English-born brick mason George Cox for wealthy New York merchant George Rapelje in 1865. In 1904, O.F. Cawthon purchased the house for his daughter, Estelle, and her husband, Edward J. Buck. The couple commissioned prominent architect George B. Rogers to remodel the home’s spacious interiors.^[1] Robin De Laney says when his family acquired the home, it had long sat idle, “with a horse carriage stable still containing a trunk full of feathers from the family’s turn-of-the-century Mardi Gras attire.”

After earning his law degree from the University of Alabama, Chris De Laney returned home. 

He and his wife, Cleo, a Chilton County peach farmer’s daughter, would have four sons: David, Bryan, Michael and Robin. Chris De Laney had fond memories of downtown, as his father, Christopher Columbus De Laney, had been captain of the U.S. Quarantine Station on the Mobile River, where spraying banana boats from the Caribbean with sulfur was used to fend off invasive species like the fire ant. Chris went to school by boat, and delivered bread from the Malbis Bakery on Broad Street.

Once the 10,000-square-foot property (outfitted with an elevator, a dumbwaiter, a pool, a stained-glass adorned staircase and Tiffany glass fixtures) was restored, Chris De Laney opened his law practice there, operating it for nine years from that location before moving the business to Dauphin Street in Midtown Mobile in 1972. By this time, Chris’ son, David, had joined the business and expanded to commercial lending. The 1970s marked a move “west” for the De Laney Company — but not too far west: to Dauphin Street in Midtown near UMS-Wright Preparatory School where the four boys attended school. Another son, Michael, expanded the legal practice as the law firm De Laney & De Laney in the 1980s. In 2018, the De Laney Company finally moved to Daphne in order to be centrally located within its Mobile-Baldwin County business footprint. 

Momentum With Direction

Through the years, the company’s role in helping other family businesses and enterprises gained momentum — momentum with a direction dictated by the Mobile Bay Area’s changing economic dynamics. Following the closure of Brookley, Chris De Laney helped secure a tract of land near Wragg Swamp for Kenneth R. Giddens, founder of WKRG radio and TV. An architect, movie theater owner and skilled businessman, Giddens’ business legacy would later be managed by his three daughters and son-in-law, Toulmin Greer.

Giddens’ legacy includes an array of remarkable enterprises that continue to thrive, including Bel Air Mall and Birdville. Giddens also, for a time, headed the U.S. Government broadcast outlet Voice of America in Washington, D.C. Robin De Laney also worked for WKRG, creating the first local website, wkrg.com, and producing the WKRG TV/Mobile Tricentennial Commission TV special, “We Are Mobile; the Spirit of a Place and Its People.” He observes: 

“The Giddens family’s pioneering contribution to Mobile was one of vision, knowing that radio, television and an indoor shopping mall was what was needed to create a thriving community.”  

An Eastern Shore Dynasty

Another family success story originated on the Eastern Shore, where Jason Malbis landed from Greece at the turn of the 20th century and went on to build a community centered on a strong work ethic and spiritual life. More than 6,000 acres became home to the Malbis Plantation, which included a Byzantine-inspired Greek Orthodox church built with marble imported from Greece. Over the years, this community would eventually evolve to include a dairy, a bakery, an ice house, a motel, a service station, a nursery, a restaurant and three large communal residences.

The family’s vast timberland holdings later became Lake Forest, Timbercreek, the Eastern Shore Centre mall, the Historic Malbis subdivision, Daphne High School and Daphne’s downtown Centennial Park. From Jason Malbis, family business leadership transitioned over the years to Antigone Papageorge, Nafseka Mallars, George Malbis, Bessie Papas and William Scourtes, who preserved Malbis Plantation as a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Robin De Laney worked with the Malbis Plantation to locate and plan many of the Daphne and Spanish Fort developments. Other opportunities in community leadership led to Robertsdale High School, Loxley Elementary School, Bass Pro Town Center on Interstate 10 and annexation of the Spanish Fort to Mobile Causeway. Today, the company’s diversity of investment and real estate opportunities span across the Gulf Coast. “Sometimes,” Robin De Laney says, “the end result is bigger than business — bigger than what we could do ourselves.” 

Over the generations, the De Laneys have been involved in the Blakeley Foundation, the Dauphin Island Foundation, the University of South Alabama Foundation, the Southland Foundation and startups from banks to utilities. The family even worked a 5,000-acre cattle operation in Dallas County. “Some were successful, some were good for the community and some were experiences we left to wiser investors,” Robin De Laney notes. 

Attorney Michael De Laney states: 

“The De Laney Company includes well over a century of professional experience across multiple industries, with areas of practice including real estate finance, banking, private-equity investment, real estate law, corporate finance, manufacturing, mining, construction, real estate development and real estate brokerage.”

De Laney Company team members include professionals with designations including Masters of Business Administration, Juris Doctors, Certified Public Accountants and Certified Commercial Investment Managers with years of practical, real-world experience.  

The Mobile Bay area will likely thrive no matter what the future brings, third-generation leader Brooks De Laney says, continuing: 

“We have to change with the times, and be flexible. Our roots are here. Now that Airbus and Austal have landed downtown, and now that we have a new airport and bridge in the works, it’s good to be on the Mobile Delta, Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. We are lucky to have such a beautiful place to call home and see opportunities come to more and more small businesses, particularly family businesses.” 

Reference

[1] al.com/business/2013/03/mobiles_historic_homes_tour_op.html