________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Approaching each project with discipline, clarity and profound respect for the client experience, RCL Development( RCL) is a renowned high-end homebuilder across Florida’ s Treasure Coast and Emerald Coast. Founded by Robert Lyles in 1995, the firm specializes in custom home construction, and, in 2023, fresh leadership carried the legacy builder forward when Alex Wells purchased RCL with his business partner John Olinger. With architectural styles ranging from traditional Anglo-Caribbean to contemporary linear projects, each of its Vero Beach homes have one thing in common: complete luxury. In-house offices, home wellness spaces and live-in art galleries have all been prevalent in RCL’ s designs, an occurrence Alex says was driven by the Covid-19 pandemic.“ I’ m still seeing numerous home offices, but there has been a migration away from wide-open concept living, particularly here in the South,” Alex elaborates.“ Clients want formal dining rooms and re-segmentation of space. We’ re building more scullery kitchens with butler’ s pantries – the kitchen itself is still a social gathering space, but all the cooking is done behind the scenes.”
RCL’ s client relationship philosophy is about understanding exactly how the homeowner wants to use the house. For many buyers, the build is their second or third home.“ Many of our clients have made themselves a lifestyle that allows mobility if they are still working, whereas some have retired and are just living the good life! No matter the client, we always follow the same discovery process and ask a lot of questions – my personal favorite is‘ How do you imagine living in the house?’ If it’ s designed for multi-generational living, they might be looking at guest wings to create space for everybody. We’ ve even built houses that are essentially lived-in art galleries, where the buyer’ s goal is to display their collection of artwork and host parties in the space. When we are engaged in the design process earlier, we can help to make sure their vision comes together.”
84