2007 Filipinas Magazine Achievement Awards

Public Affairs: Jess Santamaria
Sponsored by AAA of Northern California, Nevada, and Utah

“Jess Santamaria’s fingerprint is on nearly every aspect of Palm Beach County’s western communities. His myriad commercial and residential ventures, and his civic and philanthropic contributions, give testimony to his impact upon the growth and development of Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee and The Acreage.”
This is how Jess Santamaria was described by writer Marine Landers in an October 2003 article in Palm Beach Post. Twenty-nine years earlier, Santamaria and his family moved into Royal Palm Beach which he described as “a sleepy town of 2,000 people.”

It was nothing more than a trailer where salesmen were selling $6,000 lots, Santamaria recalls. He had gone to the place on the invitation of a fellow real estate developer who saw its potentials.

By 1981, Santamaria had built the town’s first shopping center, Royal Plaza. He then “took what was once a simple 32-room motel and added 147 suites with kitchens” to make Royal Inn “the most spacious, comfortable and convenient lodging establishment in the western communities,” wrote Landers.

But what has made Jess Santamaria legendary in South Florida is not just the way he transformed a small town in a vibrant community with a shopping and business center, a hotel, 3,000 homes which his company, Royal Professional Builders, constructed, and the biggest mall in the area, Wellington Mall, which his company owns. 

Over the years, Santamaria has had a major impact on community affairs, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Palms West Hospital and member of the Board of Governors of the Wellington Regional Medical Center; as founder of Citizens for Open Government and Community Involvement (1980) and We The People United (2002), which has demanded accountability and performance from public officials and transparency from politicians; as founder and principal support of My Brother’s/Sister’s Keepers Scholarship Foundation (1995) which have given over $120,000 in scholarships for kids from grades 1-12, and of My Brother’s/Sister’s Keepers Charitable Trust to which he personally donated $100,000 (of which $72,000 went to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina); and as the recently-elected Commissioner of District 6 of the Palm Beach County Commission.

“Without having held an elected public office, I have always voluntarily performed public service for the people of the western communities,” said Santamaria in a media interview. “I’m an organizer. When something bothers me, I do something about it. We need true public servants – we don’t need any more politicians.”

This, in fact, was the reason he decided to run for County Commissioner in 2006. The incumbent was forced to vacate his post due to official misconduct and there seemed to be no one with the credentials and the reputation for integrity and public service who wanted to run. So he did. He won by an overwhelming majority (59% of the vote) and became the first person of Filipino descent to occupy an elective position in the State of Florida.

Jess Santamaria’s philosophy in life is reflected in the Mission Statement of My
Brother’s/Sister’s Keepers Charitable Trust: “The strong and the fortunate have a social obligation to protect and assist the weak and less fortunate amongst us until they are able to help themselves.”

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