Page 8 - May 2022

friend decided to move to an Embraer Phenom 300 jet in 2017, Giles bought his King Air. Until 2021, Giles also was an ownership partner in a Beechcraft Premier IA with a fellow general contractor.
He liked the longer range of the King Air, though, and opted to upgrade to the newer King Air and install Blackhawk engines for more speed.
“There’s no jet out there that can do what the King Air can do as far as hauling eight or nine people unless you look at something like the Phenom 300 that is so much more money to purchase and operate,” he said.
A custom home builder with an aviation degree
Giles said he stumbled into a career in construction. He earned a degree in aviation management from Auburn University in 1984. He entered the U.S. Air Force after college and served four years active duty followed by eight years with the Air Force Reserve. He took a job with McDonnell Douglas consulting on the solid rocket booster program with NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. A friend invited him to partner on flipping a house; they made enough money to continue flipping and he had fun doing it, so he moved into a construction career full time.
In 1995, he built his first vacation home in a place he had often vacationed over the years: Destin, in northwest
6 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
Florida’s panhandle and known for its Gulf of Mexico beaches. It was foremost a vacation home for his family that they rented out when they weren’t using it. This was about the time VRBO had started making it easier for travelers to find vacation rentals by owners.
In 2010, the Giles’ moved themselves and their construction business to Destin. Captiva Services is the construction and design side of the business. Ben builds, and his wife Christel finishes and decorates the interiors.
“It’s been a family business since we got into it,” he said. “My wife and I have always worked together.”
The Giles’ extended family works in the business, too, and flying privately has allowed them to expand the geographic footprint of the business. In addition to visiting construction sites, they use the King Air to travel to builder shows and home furnishings markets in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Atlanta, to name a few destinations. They also use it to travel to potential future building sites.
They not only build vacation homes in their home base of Destin, but also Auburn, Alabama, which is home to Giles’ alma mater Auburn University; Lake Martin, Alabama, one of the largest manmade lakes in the U.S.; and the ski resort town of Beaver Creek, Colorado. They also have plans to build a rental in the boating paradise of The Abacos, Bahamas.
MAY 2022
The Giles’ have designed, built and furnished about 30 luxury vacation homes, most of them on the Florida Gulf Coast with unobstructed ocean views. Owning a King Air 350 has allowed them to expand their business, taking the model of building 6,000- to 8,000-square-foot homes to vacation destinations in Alabama, Colorado and the Bahamas.
(Photo credit: David Warren)