Bluegreen Corporation

Founding and early years (1966-1984)

Bluegreen Corporation was formed in Massachusetts in 1966 as Patten Realty. Founder Harry Patten had previously worked in sales at American Central, a developer of vacation home sites, and by 1964, he had saved enough to develop a single property himself. Purchasing a $15,000 parcel in rural Stamford, Vermont, Patten took on a partner and headquartered the business in the 25-room Stamford estate. Their original core business was regional in scope. Patten Realty would purchase large tracts of undeveloped or lightly developed land, usually with token down payments, from farmers unable to market it themselves. Then, they paid to have the land subdivided, and would resell the resulting 5- to 20-acre parcels to city dwellers as recreational or potential property.

Patten branched off as an independent developer after ten years, and in 1976, he incorporated the business as Patten Realty Corporation. In 1982, Patten Realty Corporation opened its first regional office branch in Portland, Maine. Annual sales increased more than tenfold, to $35 million, between 1981 and 1984 as Patten expanded outside the Northeast, and Patten was named by Fortune as one of 1985's “50 Most Fascinating Business People.”

IPO and move to Florida (1985-1993)

Patten Realty Corporation went public with an initial public offering in November 1985, and in 1986, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange as Patten Corporation, or Patten Corp. By January 1986, Patten Corp. was "the biggest gainer on the New York Stock Exchange," after its stock prices quadrupled in one year. With branches in fifteen states by early 1986, by the end of 1986, Patten Corp. remained the third fastest-growing company on the exchange. From the midpoints of fiscal 1986 through 1987, profits increased 175%, and Patten Corp. had total assets totaling $324 million by March 1988, as compared to $14 million four years earlier. Debt also increased in that time to help finance land purchases from 1987 and 1988. By the end of 1988, Patten Realty's annual revenue equaled $120 million, with net earnings of $15.1 million. In the late 1980s the company faced a bout of bad publicity over allegedly deceptive marketing, with several New England states opening investigations into the company's sales practices. While denying any wrongdoing, in 1989, Patten settled with New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire by agreeing to refund consumers "who could prove they were deceived" on issues such as lease details.

Patten Corp. experienced $45 million in losses in 1989 and 1990, with stock value dipping before rebounding again. Patten Realty was profiled on 60 Minutes in March 1991. That year the company relocated its headquarters to Boca Raton, Florida, with a number of staff remaining in Vermont. The company was profitable within six months of the move. Around that time Patten continued to restructure the business to improve cash flow, and in the early 1990s Patten Corp. sold holdings in the northeast United States to focus on the midwest and southeast. Patten Corp. furthermore worked on cutting its debt load, and by 1994 it had seen its stock value improve significantly since the dip in 1991.