Roads To Success 8

Ron and Cristy Varela (continued)


New Territory

In its early stages the Ron E. Varela Company operated out of an office in the Varela family home.  It enabled Cristy to work alongside Ron managing office operations.  “We had always worked together well,” Cristy said.  “So I was able to work and take care of the kids.  When it became apparent that I wouldn’t be able to support him in all areas he hired other employees.”

“We ended up growing that company into, eventually, a $30 million a year company,” Ron added.  Still in their twenties, the Varela’s personal income was over $200,000 a year.

During that period of time the Ron E. Varela Company had up to 150 employees, an inventory of heavy, earth moving equipment and 75 hauling trucks.  In business, timing is often everything, and the timing for the Varelas was excellent considering the building boom in Orange County during that era.  Among the company’s multi-million dollar projects were the Century Freeway in Los Angeles and the Orange Crush freeway intersection in Orange County.

With the growth of their company, the Varelas enjoyment of life grew as well.  Cristy put it this way, “We bought another home; our tax man would tell us we had to invest in other things and so we invested in some properties.  We played a lot.  We travelled a lot.  We always travelled with our kids; we took them almost everywhere we went.”

Ron and Cristy’s daughter, Jennifer, now a real estate agent in Riverside County, California, recalled those family vacations.  “We’d be on vacation and my dad would be on the phone.”  And that’s kind of the vision I have of my dad,” she related.  “He’s always working; he’s one of those people who loves to work.”

Horseback riding was one of the recreational activities that Ron and Cristy grew to love.  While on a five-day camping trip with a men’s equestrian group in the hills of Temecula, California, Ron discovered what he believed was the perfect place for his family.  “When I got back I told Cristy I thought I’d found the place we should move to,” Ron recalled.  “It was nice, serene country and we could keep horses there, so we moved to Temecula.”

Ron and Cristy had overcome the numerous challenges they faced by marrying as teenagers.  They were successfully raising two children, and together they had built a multi-million dollar company.  Life was looking extremely good when they made Temecula their family home.

“A few years later everyone else heard about Temecula,” Ron explained.  “Our secret wasn’t a big secret anymore.”

The fact that Temecula was just beginning to grow and had yet to be developed made it ideal for a talent Ron had developed through his experience in excavating and grading.  Through his years in the earth moving business Ron had learned to visualize the end result for land requiring excavation or grading; he could clearly see the end result of the work.  “One of the projects we did was a two-hundred acre property we were able to purchase,” Ron told me during his interview.  “We subdivided it into five-acre ranchettes and put homes on them.”

The Varelas sold the five-acre parcels effectively creating a development division in the Varela companies.  They also partnered with a business associate to create a sandbag company during this period of growth.  Much of the sand came from their various excavation jobs, but they also acquired permission from owners to excavate sand from flood control districts, channels and a variety of other projects.

The Varelas were doing well and were ready for more.  Through their horse association friends they found a thirty-two-hundred acre ranch just outside of Prescott, Arizona.  The ranch’s current owner, a Canadian developer, was in the process of raising financing to develop the land with 3,000 homes and two golf courses.  He needed someone who could refinance the property and the Varelas took on the refinance. The agreement gave them 320 acres in collateral and stated that if the owner failed to pay back the loan within one year they could purchase the entire ranch at a fixed price.

When the developer was unable to raise the money to complete his project, Ron and Cristy ended up purchasing the ranch, naming it Rancho Diamante.  We shot most of their interview at the ranch, a peaceful, sprawling property cradled in the Prescott National Forest.  The main house, built in the 1920’s by Quaker Oats heir Jerome Eddy, is an expansive, hacienda-style home of brick, with wood vigas, covered porches and patios.  The interior is a warm blend of wood, ceramic tile and smooth, plaster walls.  Nearby, but not too nearby, is the bunkhouse, now often used for ministry guests.  And of course no self-respecting ranch would be complete without a barn, stables and corrals.

When Ron and Cristy took over Rancho Diamante, they immediately began transforming the property, making it truly their own.  The house, a rather cold structure when they first moved in, became more welcoming under Cristy’s care, and the property flourished under Ron’s management.  On the surface, everything was going well, but in reality trouble had been brewing for some time.

© 2011 Philip Kassel