How Kenneth Behring Built Tamarac — The Founding Story of Florida's First Purpose-Built Retirement City

The Vision — Affordable Retirement at Scale

Kenneth Behring was not a luxury developer. He was a volume builder who understood one fundamental market insight: millions of middle-class Americans were approaching retirement in the 1960s and 1970s with modest pensions, limited savings, and no interest in spending their remaining years shoveling snow. They didn't need golf course estates. They needed affordable, well-built homes in a warm climate with basic community infrastructure and low ongoing costs.

Behring's answer was Mainlands of Tamarac Lakes — 18 sections of single-family homes built between 1967 and 1977 on land that had been cattle pasture and scrub. Concrete block construction. Terrazzo floors. Simple ranch layouts. Carports instead of garages. Community clubhouses at the section level instead of a single mega-complex. And HOA fees that even a retired steelworker could afford — under $100/month in today's dollars.

The model worked. Mainlands grew to over 5,000 homes, making it one of the largest 55+ communities in Florida. More importantly, it established the template that other developers would follow: volume construction, affordable pricing, and community-level amenities funded through minimal HOA fees.

The City Incorporates — 1963

Tamarac was incorporated as a city in 1963, before most of the residential development existed. This was deliberate — incorporation gave the development political structure, zoning control, and the ability to issue bonds for infrastructure. The city was, from its founding, a developer-driven creation designed to serve the retirement community being built within it. City government, road construction, utility installation, and zoning all aligned to support the residential development plan.

By the 1980s, Tamarac had grown beyond Behring's Mainlands into a full suburban city. Kings Point — developed by a different builder starting in 1983 — added 4,869 condos, villas, and coach homes with a more amenity-rich model than Mainlands' minimalist approach. Lakes of Carriage Hills and other smaller communities filled in the gaps. Today, Tamarac has approximately 65,000 residents, with 55+ communities comprising a significant percentage of the city's housing stock.

Behring After Tamarac

Kenneth Behring went on to become one of America's most successful developers and philanthropists. He owned the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise (1988–1997), donated $100 million to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History (the building was renamed in his honor), and through the Wheelchair Foundation delivered over 1.1 million wheelchairs to people in developing countries. He died in 2022 at age 93.

But his most lasting impact may be the most modest: 5,000 concrete-block houses in Tamarac, Florida, each one built for a retired couple who wanted nothing more than a warm home they could afford. Sixty years later, those houses still stand — still affordable, still housing retirees, still delivering on the promise Behring made when he looked at cattle pasture and saw a city.

The Legacy in Today's Market

Behring's Mainlands homes are now 49–59 years old. The concrete block construction has held up well — better than the wood-frame construction common in other states. But the mechanical systems (plumbing, electrical, A/C, roofing) are at or past their design life in homes that haven't been renovated. The homes that have been updated — new roof, impact windows, modern A/C, updated kitchen and baths — sell for $350,000–$480,000. Original-condition homes sell for $200,000–$250,000.

The core of Behring's model remains intact: affordable homes on owned land with low HOA fees and no condo complications. In a Broward County market dominated by the condo insurance crisis, SB 4-D structural requirements, and $500–$900/month HOA fees, Mainlands' $50–$150/month HOA and single-family ownership model looks more relevant than ever. Behring built for affordability in 1967. In 2026, that affordability thesis may be his greatest legacy.

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