MAJOR FLORIDA INVESTMENT.

The CL Financial Group, based here, plans to invest US$2 billion in real estate redevelopment projects in Florida over the next 10 years, spanning hotels, homes and commercial properties, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, reports CANA (June 24, 2001):

Over the past 15 years, Executive Chairman Lawrence Duprey has built his family's insurance company into a Caribbean powerhouse, a conglomerate that owns petrochemical plants, banks, construction firms, factories and diverse ventures in more than a half dozen countries. Already, CL Financial has assembled nearly five acres on Fort Lauderdale's beachfront for The Capri, a US$150 million hotel, time-share and retail complex. On the intracoastal waterway, it has plans to develop Palazzo Las Olas, a US$75 million Mediterranean-style residential and retail complex;

The privately held company wants to diversify from the Caribbean and sees opportunities in Broward, an area Duprey describes as "less crowded than Miami...with real estate still at a reasonable price." "We figure by the time we finish, we'll invest in excess of a couple of billion dollars, over maybe a five-to-six-year period," Duprey said during an interview in Fort Lauderdale;

Duprey, now 64, has made good on ambitious plans before. After growing up in Canada, he Duprey returned to run the family business known as Colonial Life Insurance Co. and quickly embarked on an expansion program. He bought into the former Barclays Bank in Trinidad, acquired Chase Manhattan and Citibank branches in Barbados, set up insurance companies in other Caribbean nations, and bought real estate companies and other ventures on Trinidad's slumping stock market;

Later, Duprey got aggressive in en energy ventures, building a petrochemical plant, then buying the Government's shares in two other plants that make fuel additives. As assets grew, CL Financial also diversified into home building and tourism projects in such Caribbean nations as Grenada, Antigua and St. Lucia in the eastern Caribbean. He seized the opportunity to buy in Florida when the savings-and-loan debacle forced many banks to sell properties at a discount. Duprey now more than 65 companies with 15,000 employees.

Duprey said CL Financial has assets topping US$5 billion. Last year, its profits exceeded US$300 million on sales of $1 billion-plus. This year, profits should near US$500 million on sales close to US$1.5 billion, thanks to high prices for oil and petrochemicals. Duprey has formed Colonial Development Co. in Fort Lauderdale. That unit will work with different partners on various ventures, including Fort Lauderdale-based architects Adache & Associates for The Capri project.