St. John builder began in restaurant business, but now emerging as top River Region contractor

By KEVIN CHIRI

Publisher

LAPLACE – If it seems there is a little too much attention to the kitchens in the custom built homes by builder Ray Leach, there is good reason.

Leach is well-known in St. John Parish today because he is one of the most successful home builders in the region. And it is a reputation that is on the verge of exploding into an entirely new level with his biggest project ever, the 350-home development called &#8220The Groves” which has been approved and is on the verge of getting off the ground.

But Leach, still just 36-years of age, spent much of his early professional life in the restaurant management business, something that was ever so close to capturing him for good.

Even today, Leach admits he still thinks about opening his own restaurant in St. John, after he worked at some of the most exclusive resorts and restaurants in the New York Hampton’s, Miami and Dallas.

That connection to the restaurant business still entices him, he admits, but it doesn’t appear it is going to win out any longer since Leach is rapidly increasing his success as a regional home builder.

Statistics obtained from the St. John Parish Permit Department show Leach had new construction totaling nearly $2.7 million in 2005, making him the number two builder here for that year. However already in 2006, he has $1.6 million underway, and is on his way to his biggest year ever.

Leach does work in the tri-parish area, as well as New Orleans and Metairie, and did approximately $11 million in gross sales in 2005, and is aiming at over $15 million in 2006.

Growing up in St. John Parish, Leach was not one of those kids who came up in the business, although it was his father who later in life got him started.

Instead, he had an unusual upbringing which saw him spend most of his summers in the exclusive New York area called the Montauks. His grandmother lived there, and always had him spend the summer there.

&#8220I think that really gave me a different perspective on a lot of things,” he said. &#8220I was exposed to a very different culture than the south offered, and it made me more accepting of different people.”

Not that he had any problem with his buddies down south.

Leach grew up in a stable family with a mom and dad who had a solid work ethic, and kept a close-knit family together. With one sister at home, Leach was a &#8220pretty normal kid” who was very athletically inclined as he played football, basketball, golf and tennis, even playing for the first St. Charles Catholic team which played against Riverside.

&#8220We won that year and I think it was about 15 years after that before St. Charles beat them,” he said with a smile. &#8220That was nice to be on that team.”

He remembers both his mother and father for their hard work.

&#8220My mom used to work at the New Orleans International Airport, and would get up at 4 a.m. every day and not be home until 5. And my dad just always taught me that if I wanted something, I had to work for it.”

However the relationship with his grandmother was a special one.

&#8220I would go up there every summer and stay with her. She always was happy to see me come, and then was ready for me to leave by the end of the summer,” he said with a laugh. &#8220She always cried when I left, since I always tested her as a young kid does. But she had stricter values about a lot of things-kind of old school-and she really shaped who I was in a lot of ways. It was hard when she died in 1988.”

He finished high school at St. Charles Catholic in 1988, and went to college at LSU. Even though he put in four years, he never graduated and admitted &#8220I just wanted to get out in the work world and make money.”

He worked during the summers at the Montauk Yacht Club, and began to learn the restaurant business. A man named John Higgins became one of his young mentors, teaching him all about the business, besides giving him another strong role model teaching him the importance of working hard.

&#8220You know how they say you have four or five people in your life who leave an imprint on you. Well, John was one for me. He was a great guy who taught me accountability on the job, a good work ethic, how to deal with customers and many things that later helped me in the construction business,” he said.

His reputation got around, and he was offered the job as head bartender over 30 workers at the new Dan Marino Sports Bar and Grill in Miami, where he went in 1992 at the age of 22. Two weeks after the place opened, the entire staff was fired and Leach was given the chance to be night manager.

From there, he became the GM at the Pomadora Restaurant in Dallas and continued to think he had a career in the restaurant business.

But through it all, Leach admitted he wasn’t making much money.

&#8220It’s a tough business. You work 16 to 18 hour days, and I was still only making $35,000 a year even at my last job,” he said.

Back home, his father had gotten into the growing construction business in St. John Parish and was looking out for his boy.

&#8220He told me to come back home, and he would work with me for a year, then let me go it on my own,” he said. &#8220He knew I was a hustler, and I got a chance to learn the business while working under him.”

Incredibly, even with the clear potential in the construction business, Leach almost got drawn away again. After a year with his dad, he went back to Montauk and was again managing at the Yacht Club, something that eventually would lead to finding his wife. He had met a young woman three years before that, who was a cocktail waitress for him, and had dated for the summer. But when he came back south, the relationship ended.

When he returned in 1995, after not even talking to the girl for three years, they struck up the relationship again.

&#8220She was from a wealthy family and was going back to college. I didn’t even have a job, but when I dropped her off at college in the fall, I got down on one knee and proposed. I didn’t even have a ring,” he said. &#8220Amazingly, she said yes, but said we couldn’t tell her parents since I didn’t have a job.

Knowing he needed a career, he returned to Louisiana and put all his efforts into Ray Leach Construction. Two years later, he married his wife Becky and now the couple has two children, a three-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter.

Finally, all his management training was ready to pay off. In his first year with the company he built four houses and made &#8220about $40,000” since he was also collaborating with two local businessmen, Harold Flynn and Michael St. Martin, with some custom homes.

Then later in 1997, he attributes local banker C.J. Clement with First National USA for giving him the big chance he needed since he began to get financial backing.

&#8220I was turned down by five banks, but finally C.J. Clement gave me a chance and I had some capital to work with,” he explained. &#8220I’ll always appreciate what he did for me.”

Since then, Leach has seen the business grow and grow. By 2000 he built 25 homes in one year and grossed $4 million.

By 2005, he built 65 to 70 units since he was now adding condominiums to his repertoire, grossing $11 million. And now he expects to do about $15 million or more this year.

Leach, while ranking as the second biggest builder in St. John, still finds himself behind top builder Joey Scontrino of Landcraft Homes, a company which had well over 100 new starts in 2005 and did over $15 million in St. John Parish alone. But Leach said that he likes the competitive nature of the business, which has pushed him to be as good as he can be.

&#8220I’ve always been a competitive person, but because of Joey and the success he has had, I’ve become more competitive. I guess the best way to put it is that Joey has made others perform better, or go away,” he said. &#8220I have to respect that.”

However Leach appears to be on the edge of moving closer to the Scontrino operation with his first big development in The Groves. Along with co-investor Michael St. Martin, the five year project has now gotten complete parish approval and is having infrastructure work being done at this time. He hopes to have homes going up by September of this year.

He still plans to do his 50 to 60 custom homes a year, along with large projects like his $600,000 condos in New Orleans Uptown, but the 350-home development will move Leach into a new league of homebuilders.

&#8220I look at what I’ve done so far and sometimes wonder how it worked out. But I think I’ve been successful since I’ve tried to be very honest-something I learned from my dad-and I have surrounded myself with good people,” he noted. &#8220I’ve taken some risks, even though I don’t think some things are so risking if you just work hard.”

And what about his St. John Parish restaurant?

&#8220It’s always in the back of my mind,” he added.