THE VISION BEHIND THE PROJECT
When the Costa Nova Development Project broke ground in November 2010, Keeley Development described the initiative as more than a traditional residential construction project. The company envisioned a long-term, vertically integrated redevelopment strategy designed to expand Costa Nova's housing inventory while simultaneously stimulating commercial growth, workforce participation, infrastructure investment, and private-sector development.
For founder and CEO Steve Keeley, the project represented a significant shift in both scale and ambition.
“There's rich, and then there's big. I've never been interested in stopping at rich.”
— Steve Keeley
By 2010, Keeley had already established a diversified portfolio of retail, commercial real estate, and private investment holdings. The Costa Nova project marked his transition toward what he later described as “scale-driven investment”—using multiple Keeley-controlled businesses to participate in different stages of the same development ecosystem.
Rather than relying exclusively on outside contractors, suppliers, retailers, and property-management firms, Keeley increasingly favored an integrated model in which affiliated companies could provide services across multiple phases of a project.
Keeley has argued that this structure reduces operational inefficiencies, improves supply-chain coordination, and allows capital generated within one business segment to support expansion elsewhere in the portfolio.
Critics have described the same model differently, arguing that the increasing concentration of property, contracting, retail, and investment activity under Keeley-affiliated entities has made it difficult to determine where one business ends and another begins.
Keeley rejects that criticism.
“People say I'm everywhere like that's an accusation. I live here. I invest here. I employ people here. Of course I'm everywhere.”
A VERTICALLY INTEGRATED PORTFOLIO
Over the past two decades, Keeley's Costa Nova holdings have expanded beyond conventional real-estate development.
RETAIL & CONSUMER GOODS
Keeley Market serves as the company's flagship retail operation, supported by an expanding portfolio of private-label products and regional supplier relationships.
REAL ESTATE & PROPERTY ACQUISITION
Keeley-affiliated entities maintain residential, commercial, and undeveloped property holdings throughout Costa Nova. Strategic acquisitions have allowed the company to assemble larger development parcels and pursue long-term mixed-use projects.
CONSTRUCTION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Affiliated contractors participate in site preparation, construction, utility improvements, and other infrastructure work associated with Keeley development projects.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Public-private workforce initiatives provide employment, training, and contracting opportunities connected to construction and redevelopment projects.
Keeley Development describes these programs as a way to ensure that public investment produces measurable economic benefits within Costa Nova.
COMMUNITY INVESTMENT
Keeley-affiliated businesses provide sponsorships and financial support for community events, school programs, nonprofit organizations, and civic initiatives.
STRATEGIC LAND HOLDINGS
The company's portfolio also includes undeveloped property intended for future residential and commercial use, including parcels near the eastern boundary of the Ohlone Wetland.
SCALE AS A BUSINESS STRATEGY
Keeley's approach relies heavily on economies of scale.
As the portfolio expands, affiliated companies can theoretically reduce per-unit costs, consolidate procurement, negotiate larger supplier contracts, centralize administrative functions, and distribute capital expenditures across multiple revenue-generating entities.
Keeley has repeatedly argued that this model allows his companies to undertake projects that smaller developers could not finance independently.
The strategy has also made Keeley's personal wealth increasingly difficult to separate from the valuation of his privately held companies, real-estate assets, investment vehicles, and development partnerships.
Keeley appears to enjoy the ambiguity.
“People obsess over the number. I care about what the number lets you build.”
His fascination with that number, however, is well documented.
THINK BIGGER
Keeley has spoken frequently about the world's wealthiest entrepreneurs and the psychological difference between wealth accumulation and wealth at scale.
During a 2018 business interview, he dismissed the billionaire benchmark that once defined extreme private wealth.
“Billionaire used to sound impossible. Now it sounds like a starting point. Somebody's going to hit a trillion eventually. Why shouldn't it be me?”
The remark became one of Keeley's most frequently quoted statements.
When asked later whether he regretted it, Keeley reportedly laughed.
“If you're still chasing a million, you're thinking too small. If you're chasing a billion, you're thinking like everybody else. Think bigger.”
Associates describe that fixation on scale as fundamental to Keeley's management philosophy. Internal growth targets reportedly emphasize expansion, market penetration, asset acquisition, and portfolio valuation rather than short-term liquidity alone.
Keeley himself has described the goal more simply:
“I don't want to own the biggest company in Costa Nova. I want to build something Costa Nova can't imagine functioning without.”
72 AND COUNTING
For all his emphasis on forecasting, metrics, and quantitative performance indicators, Keeley maintains at least one decidedly unscientific relationship with numbers.
His favorite is 72.
Keeley has referred to 72 as his lucky number since his earliest years in business, and longtime employees say it regularly appears in everything from informal performance targets to personal anecdotes.
“Some people have a lucky shirt. I've got 72.”
Keeley is also known for remembering numerical details associated with significant moments in his career—purchase prices, quarterly revenue figures, property valuations, acquisition dates, and major investment milestones.
That reputation has become part of his public persona: a businessman who rarely forgets a number when money is attached to it.
PROJECT PERFORMANCE
The Costa Nova Development Project originally established a target of 300 residential units, alongside commercial development, workforce programs, infrastructure improvements, and expanded community amenities.
Current reported progress includes:
- 74 units completed
- 38 units under active construction
Additional phases remain in various stages of planning, permitting, financing, and pre-construction review.
Keeley Development attributes delays to a combination of capital-market volatility, regulatory review, construction-cost escalation, supply-chain constraints, environmental compliance requirements, and changing market conditions.
The company maintains that the project remains financially viable and that its long-term asset appreciation and projected community economic impact justify continued investment.
“Development isn't a quarterly earnings report. You don't judge a twenty-year investment on what happened this quarter.”
— Steve Keeley