Move over, Martha Stewart
Billionaire Sheila C. Johnson launches a lifestyle company

by Paula C. Squires
Virginia Business
June 2005

At Sheila Johnson’s Market Salamander in Middleburg, patrons can stop by for a refill — of olive oil that is. Here in a restored building that used to be a gun shop, they can replenish bottles with the finest oils from Italy and Spain, pick up a freshly baked loaf of Ciabatta and forego the trouble of cooking dinner by ordering up crab cakes, spit-roasted duck or perhaps Tuscan porchetta — the market’s signature buttermilk-roasted chicken.

And this is just the beginning. The gourmet country market in the heart of Northern Virginia’s horse country is the first piece of a lifestyle empire envisioned by Johnson, one of America’s wealthiest women. She became a billionaire after splitting a fortune with ex-husband Robert L. Johnson, CEO and chairman of BET (Black Entertainment Television). The couple founded the network in 1980, and Sheila served as vice president of corporate affairs and developed an award-winning teen talk show before media giant Viacom came calling in 2000. It bought BET for about $3 billion, and the couple reportedly split about $1.6 billion in proceeds from the deal. Sheila and her husband of 33 years divorced in 2002.

Since then Johnson has given away millions and is moving on with a vision that some fear will change the quiet, secluded character of Middleburg. Johnson, 56, wants to build a $70 million to $80 million, 120-room luxury resort and spa on the outskirts of town. “This will be a real destination resort for Loudoun County,” she promises. “I aspire to excellence and want it to be the best — a five-star resort.” Plans call for two restaurants, banquet facilities, a full-service spa, a conference center, stables and miles of trails for horseback riding.

During a recent interview Johnson gave a tour of her market and described plans to open a local boutique that would sell soaps, home accessories and Johnson-designed linens. “That way you could take a little bit of the resort home with you,” she says. She already has purchased a portion of Mistral, a bath and body company.

The entrepreneur is no stranger to Middleburg. She owns 200-acre Salamander Farm, where her 19-year-old daughter — a skilled equestrian and Olympic hopeful — trains for part of the year. She also has a 15-year-old son. She runs her business from an office on the farm, is renovating a home among its rolling hills and will remarry on its grounds this fall.
These local connections, however, haven’t stopped opposition to the proposed 85,000-square-foot, 252-acre resort. “The scope and the scale are just too much,” says Chris Malone, owner of Middleburg Real Estate. He’s been selling farms and estates in the area for 18 years and says Middleburg’s draw is “privacy, seclusion, a low-key town.” That’s what has attracted the rich over the years, including such people as the late philanthropist and art lover Paul Mellon, Jacqueline Mars of the Mars candy fortune and movie star Robert Duval. “Her quote about how she’s going to put Middleburg on the map: That’s the whole point. We don’t want to be on the map,” says Malone.

Other residents favor the project and its hunt country design of stucco and stone. Still, there are concerns about traffic. Johnson’s original site plan called for a 58-room inn. That number has more than doubled. However, an outdoor event pavilion, which would have attracted day visitors, has been dropped. Before building can get under way for a planned summer 2007 opening, Johnson needs a special exception from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

Middleburg Mayor Dimos expects a favorable decision. “Of course, this would be an asset to the town,” he says. “Of course it would generate more foot traffic,” providing a boost to local merchants.

To help her cause, Johnson recently replaced her original development team with a new company, Salamander Hospitality, and hired top hospitality executive Prem Devadas to run it. He’s the former managing director of The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island in South Carolina and the five-star Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. Devadas also will head the operation of Salamander Markets, with a second one scheduled to open soon in Palm Beach, Fla., not far from Johnson’s Florida horse farm in Wellington.

In a recent speech, Johnson told fellow minority entrepreneurs that trying to get the Middleburg venture off the ground “has been the fight of my life." Shortly after announcing her plans, she began seeing bumper stickers around town that said, “Don’t BET Middleburg.” The situation has been scary, she says. “I’ve got round-the-clock security. There has been racist hate mail and threats against me and my children. But I’m not going to give up."

Things are going smoother in other areas of her life. She’s engaged to be married to Judge William T. Newman, chief judge of the Arlington County Circuit Court. Ask how she met Newman and the businesslike Johnson dissolves into laughter. Newman presided over her divorce hearing in Arlington. But that wasn’t the first time she met him. Years before, the judge acted opposite Johnson in a Negro Ensemble Company play in Washington, D.C. “I hadn’t seen him in 32 years!” Two weeks after her divorce was granted, she says, “He showed up at the Washington International Horse Show, and we’ve been dating ever since.”

Outside of business, she cheers on her children like any mom and supports groups that benefit her longtime interests: youth and arts education. Johnson is president of the Washington International Horse Show, and serves on the boards of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and the Parsons School of Design in New York. She recently donated $7 million to Parsons, the largest donation by a single donor in the school’s history. In Middleburg, the former music teacher, who still plays violin occasionally, donated $3 million to endow the Sheila C. Johnson Performing Arts Center at the private Hill School. She also has given $2 million to the United Negro College Fund.

As for her great wealth, Johnson says, “It’s given me the ability to have another career.” Perhaps more important than the money is what she has learned over the years about business: “When you have a passion and a vision for something, you have to make sure you stay on your own path. Don’t let anyone take you off of it.”