World View
Resort owner Sheila Johnson plans big changes — and not just at her new Palm Harbor property. In an exclusive interview with TBI, she shares the vision for what she calls her “third act in life”
BY JASON DAVIS
PORTRAITS BY JEFF FAY
On the very day the bank wired the money to complete the $35 million deal, the bulldozers were already in place. Sheila Johnson wanted to make it absolutely clear that her newest acquisition, the long-neglected Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor — “the greatest resort I’ve ever seen,” in her words — was about to change quickly and dramatically.
The heavy-duty construction equipment, its sheer tonnage of dirt-caked steel and oil-soaked rubber sinking into the tender turf of the resort’s Island Golf Course, was an obvious sign of what Johnson had envisioned for the nearly 40-year-old luxury destination. Not a complete dismantling of what once had been one of the country’s most exclusive golf and tennis destinations, but definitely an unmistakable alteration of the landscape.
This was not a subtle message.
Then again, no one has ever accused Johnson of subtlety.
Not lately, anyway. You could argue that the first 50 years or so of Johnson’s life were spent below the radar. Fresh out of the University of Illinois, she was a trained concert violinist and music teacher who married her college sweetheart. A few years later, the couple had an idea for a cable TV network that would focus on black viewers; they cofounded Black Entertainment Television, which pioneered niche-audience broadcasting on a national scale, but Bob was always the front man while Sheila worked behind the scenes. Then two big things happened: In 2000, broadcasting behemoth Viacom, the parent company of CBS, saw value in the Johnsons’ creation and bought BET for $3 billion. In 2002, the Johnsons’ 33-year marriage dissolved, and they split their assets.
Those events set the stage for what Sheila Crump Johnson, now 59, calls her “third act in life.”
And she’s living that life large, making the most of her circumstances as one of America’s wealthiest women. With ownership stakes in professional sports teams, a hospitality company with a growing portfolio, and a zeal for philanthropy, Johnson has a firm grip on the leading role that eluded her for so long.
The earthmovers that day were not merely signals of what she’s doing at Innisbrook. They were symbolic of what she’s doing with her life.
Moving the earth.
Johnson broke ground as America’s first black female billionaire — yes, before Oprah Winfrey — but that’s a detail she doesn’t want to talk about, even though she begrudgingly acknowledges it. Johnson also is the only American woman, period, to hold ownership stakes in three big-league sports franchises — the Washington Capitals (National Hockey League), the Washington Wizards (National Basketball Association) and the Washington Mystics (Women’s NBA). A self-described “sports nut,” she’s proud of that.
But there’s another detail she’s equally proud of: Her business venture, Salamander Hospitality, is making deep inroads in the tra-
ditionally tough-to-crack luxury industry. Salamander owns two upscale resorts, has one under construction, has plans to manage as many as three more, and has developed a line of gourmet markets in the towns she calls home, Middleburg, Virginia, and Palm Beach.
Johnson estimates it will take two years and require almost as much money as the purchase price to fully rejuvenate Innisbrook.
“I’ve traveled … South America, Canada, Europe, Africa. I’ve made mental notes and written things down about what’s unique about the world’s best resorts. We can build upon those ideas,” she says, sipping hot tea inside a cozy Innisbrook clubhouse on a crisp March morning while some of the world’s top professional golfers compete in a tournament just outside the door. “When I was first approached about this place, I was given such a bleak picture. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was about a 6. It wasn’t in bad shape, but it needed some help. I could see a lot of possibilities.
“And I do love a challenge.”
That was the first thing Prem Devadas noticed when he became Salamander’s president three years ago, after overseeing some of the country’s top luxury destinations. “She’s one of the most forceful, most persevering individuals I’ve ever worked for,” he says. “She really sets the tone for the company — any situation, really. It’s a manner that’s both disarming and highly effective for a leader. Of course, she’ll always listen and consider other points of view, but once she has a clear vision of the right thing to do, she will not give up.”
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