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3/7/2007

Getting to Know Marvin & Beverly Steen
By Dolores E. Pike

"I want to see the new community center built as fast as possible and the same goes for covering the Ocean Pines pool.  The community needs it. Let's get the show on the road," said Marvin Steen, owner of Steen Associates in Ocean Pines.

"Every time we (Ocean Pines) do something it adds to home values. Golf adds value to everything I sell.  People have doubled and tripled their money but nobody talks about that.  I sold lots for as low as $6,000 and now I see wooded lots going for (as much as) $166,000.  It's because of the amenities," he continued. "We were voted number 10 out of 938 retirement communities so we've got to be doing something right,"

As for the slow sales of existing homes and condos in the Ocean City/Ocean Pines area, Mr. Steen just returned from a meeting of the National Association of Home Builders in Orlando, FL and says what is happening here is happening all over the U.S.

In the years since the late 1960s when he returned here to sell land for Boise Cascade Mr. Steen has bought many lots in Ocean Pines including 185 wooded lots from Second National Bank when it failed.  He also bought Salt Grass Cove, Wood Duck I and Wood Duck II from Boise Cascade, developing them as well as Harbor Village. To date Mr. Steen figures he has built over 1,000 homes in Worcester and Sussex Counties.

"When I first started building in here (Ocean Pines) it was little summer homes. Now the people are coming here full time.  It is amazing how it has changed," said Mr. Steen.

Mr. Steen was well aware of the potential of the area, having grown up in Dagsboro, DE. After graduating from college with a degree in accounting he got a job as a stockbroker with Laird, Bissell and Meade who gave him a choice of work locations: Lucerne, Switzerland or Salisbury.  He chose Salisbury and a couple of years later when the office closed he went to work for Boise Cascade.   As lots began selling faster than homes could be built on them, Mr. Steen started Steen Associates and went into the business of home building. 

It is a family business that includes not only his son Greg but Marvin's wife Beverly who works side by side with her husband of 43 years.  She remembers the early days, building homes when Ocean Pines was a maze of dirt roads, many ending in cul-de-sacs, and no street signs to point the way.  It was easy to get lost.  She would drive out to the main roads, meet contractor trucks lead them in and then back out again.

Mrs. Steen was always up to whatever job that needed to be done. During a period when the Steens were handling some summer rental properties in Ocean City the cleaning crew up and quit in the middle of the season.  Greg, then 10 years old, volunteered his mother and 14 year old sister Kim, along with himself, to take over. Mrs. Steen claims in retrospect that it must have been the hottest August on record, made even more so because the air conditioning was turned off during the four hour turn-around time between renters when cleaning crews worked.

The Steen family takes not only their work time seriously but also their play time.  Every year they go on a family vacation, usually in the winter, so they look for a place where they can find quality beach time.  In fact, Marvin met Beverly on Bethany Beach when he was captain of the life guards.  She, like her husband, is a local girl, having grown up in Selbyville, DE.

Along with the family vacations, Mr. and Mrs. Steen travel extensively on their own, having visited at least 50 countries.  Mrs. Steen refers to a recent trip taken last June as their "Poseidon Adventure," but in reality a Mediterranean sail boat cruise for 60 passengers served by a crew of 30.  

"The passengers were having dinner as the boat headed towards Sicily and the maitre d' had a bottle of wine fall out of the cabinet.  He put it back and it fell out a second time.  As he went to put it back again I looked up at the high windows above and saw a wave coming.  The boat went over on its side and the tables were cleared of china, silverware and wine glasses.  People went flying. My sister-in-law flipped out of her chair in a somersault and my brother got hit in the jaw with a wine bottle. I got all the white wine on me and the guy sitting next to me got all the red wine.  A woman landed in Marvin's lap and kept him from turning over. There was broken glass and lettuce everywhere.

"It was so surreal I thought they were filming something.  The only good thing was it was the only night they didn't serve a hot soup. Also that it was dinnertime and everybody was inside otherwise they would have washed off the side of the boat," said Mrs. Steen.  She went on to explain that a 50 mile an hour hailstorm suddenly broadsided the boat, doing further damage on shore in Naples, Italy.  According to the crew, in over 200 trips they had never experienced anything like it.

Often times when the Steens travel, Mr. Steen has the opportunity to do some hunting or fishing.  His office walls have a sampling of the results of successful trips, including the head of a red stag that he shot 10 years ago. At that time it was the second largest stag kill in the world, according to records kept by Texas Trophy Hunting.

But after their travels the Steens are always glad to return home to Ocean Pines. "I love the whole area," says Mr. Steen, an eternal optimist, according to his wife. "It is unbelievable how many people, the volunteers and the boards, and what they have done, to keep Ocean Pines growing and continuing to operate like it has.  Every year it gets a little bit better, a little bit nicer." 

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Uploaded: 3/8/2007