Promotion, Partnerships, and Polo

Dallas dynamo and former TV anchor Charles Ward, who has been promoting the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club for nearly two decades, is expanding his empire.

Charles, who plays President George Washington with my King George III in the village parade each year, has forged a strategic alliance with the international luxury glossy Polo Lifestyles to market some of the world’s most expensive estates.

Charles’s company, Idea Works Global, is celebrating its 40th anniversary, with him spending half his year annually in Montecito.

“We’ve been involved in experimental marketing of the most expensive private jets, cars, and mansions in Santa Barbara and beyond,” says Charles. “And now that many large city residents want to relocate, the timing is perfect to launch ‘Mansions of the Month – curated by Charles Ward,’ featuring estates in Montecito, Aspen, the Hamptons, and Monaco.”

His longtime marketing associate Tom Martin, based in Aspen, the Colorado jet set ski resort, has also opened an Idea Works Global service office in the town.

Locally, Polo Lifestyles magazine won quite a reputational coup when Montecito’s 237-acre Rancho San Carlos owned by Jim Jackson, which had sat on the market for six years unsold, went for $63 million in less than 60 days after being featured in the monthly issue, read by 10,000 high net worth individuals.

“Imagine how many owners of multi-million dollar properties for sale in Montecito and elsewhere would love a sixty-day turnaround to close a sale,” adds Charles. “This new alliance is a dream come true for us, realtors, and estate owners eager to reach exactly the right target audience.”

Johns Hopkins President Buys Montecito Pad

Ron Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University, and his wife, Joanne, have splashed out $5.2 million for a 1.1-acre Montecito estate.

The 4,219-square-foot neoclassical Spanish Revival-style house boasting four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms is set on a quiet cul-de-sac and was built in 2000, but was recently given a contemporary remodel.

Daniels, 61, has been president of the university in Baltimore since 2009, continuing the institution’s 38-year streak receiving more competitively allocated research funding than any other university in the U.S.

During his 11 years at the helm, the Canadian-born law and economics scholar has received accolades for strengthening the school’s graduate programs, as well as his annual boosting of the financial aid fund.

This is not the couple’s first Montecito home.

Back in 2016, they paid $3.6 million for a ranch-style estate just a short jog from their new property. Unfortunately that home was impacted by the 2018 mudslides and Santa Barbara County subsequently paid $4 million to buy out the dynamic duo’s interest, as part of an initiative for a new neighborhood debris basin.