Our team, with over 150 years of combined construction experience, has greatly contributed to the continuance of DiPrima’s outstanding reputation and standing within the community. The DiPrima Companies historic reputation for providing our customers with superior individual service and exemplary workmanship ensures new home buyers that their DiPrima home will be a testament to our motto:
Our founder, Joe DiPrima was raised in Brooklyn, where he was first introduced to the real estate development world while working summers at his family’s business, The Hotel DiPrima in Highland, New York.
Joe and his family moved to Miami in 1951 where he attended the University of Miami and obtained a Masters Degree in Accounting and Finance.The Department of Defense’s Cape Canaveral expansion in 1959 enticed Joe to relocate to Brevard County where he started his first real estate development company in 1961.
For his first 10 years in Brevard, Joe built commercial properties, county facilities and residential subdivisions. With the founding of The DiPrima Companies, Joe inspired his team with his standard of excellence in the construction of local townhome communities, schools, municipal recreational facilities and custom residences.
DiPrima’s story in the United States starts with Giuseppe DiPrima, Joe’s grandfather. Hailing from Santa Margherita, Sicily, Giuseppe found his way to New York City, where he brought his wife and children. Barney, Joe’s father and the youngest of the siblings, was the only one born in America.
Gieuseppe worked as a tailor for Browning, King, & Co. As a industrious man, he saved up enough money to build a seventeen unit hotel in Highland, New York, just across the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie. Opened in 1926, the establishment was creatively dubbed, “Hotel DiPrima.” Highland, and the hotel, provided a welcome escape from urban life for many city-dwellers, sitting roughly one hundred miles north of Brooklyn.
Joe’s uncle and grandfather worked together running the hotel, until Joe’s uncle passed away. Needing assistance with the operation of the business, Barney offered to help. Barney was a school teacher in Brooklyn, and was able to assist Giuseppe over the summers. Eventually, Barney bought his father out, and built twenty-nine additional units.
From birth until age twelve, Joe lived in Brooklyn. At twelve, Barney committed to the operation of the hotel, and the family moved into the aforementioned apartment, conveniently located above the lounge.
Barney, pleased with the success of the business in Highland, began looking for additional business ventures, and landed in Miami. Back in the late 40s and early 50s, entire motels in Miami were available for rent. As air conditioning was not commonplace in Florida for several more years, Florida had busy and slow seasons. Property owners not looking to manage their hotels during the slow season would allow other interested parties to rent out their buildings for a season, or the entire year.
During this time, Barney moved the family down to Miami. Joe attended his junior year of high school at Miami Edison before temporarily returning to New York for the summer and finishing his degree in 1950.
Joe started attending classes at the University of Miami in 1951, earning his Master of Accounting and Finance in 1956. After graduating, Joe worked at a CPA firm, PP+K. He spent his time traveling to the offices of various clients and performing audits on their behalf.
After a year of accounting, several of Joe’s friends convinced him to switch careers and open a franchise with Florida Insulation and Fireproofing. They elected Joe as president and ⅓ owner. The company worked with asbestos, movable walls, and bathroom partitions. Disillusioned with the troubles frequently faced by subcontractors, Joe wanted out of the business. Otto and Barney convinced Joe that work as a general contractor was much more appealing.
The three of them pooled some money together and purchased a single lot in Indian Harbour Beach, off of Mayaca Drive. The total cost of the lot was $2,850, sold to the partners from TA Altman, a local landscaping contractor. Joe and Otto built the house together for roughly $10/SF, at 1,800 square feet, and sold it for about $21,900. After the first sale, the three men bought two additional lots with their collective money and began building two more homes. Joe was successful enough starting up, and seeing that he needed no further guidance, Otto allowed Joe to purchase him out.
From 1961 to 1971, Joe worked alone at DiPrima Construction. He had no field supervision, labor hands, or secretaries. While the work was difficult, the overhead was minimal, and any profits belonged exclusively to him. In 1971, Joe hired his first secretary. Later on, around 1980, Joe opened up the company’s current office in Satellite Beach, off of South Patrick.
