Scott Dorsey was working for his cousin’s small real estate and construction business, Merritt, in 1977 when family members sat down together to map out the company’s future.
Founder Leroy Merritt wanted to create an enterprise that could grow and live on, he told Dorsey, his younger cousin. Just five years out of college, Dorsey recalls telling Merritt, “I’ll stick around.”
Dorsey, chairman and CEO 53 years after joining Merritt Companies, has made good on that promise. Through ups and downs in commercial real estate, the company has grown from a couple dozen employees and a 1 million-square-foot portfolio to nearly 200 workers and 20 million square feet. It’s known for building and leasing industrial parks that typically house small companies on shorter-term leases in spaces averaging 8,000 square feet.
An additional 1,200 people work at Merritt Clubs, started by a racquetball club tenant of Merritt’s in Towson in 1977. When the tenant’s investors backed out, Merritt took over, later expanding the concept to eight area fitness centers.
Dorsey says Leroy Merritt’s business philosophy continues to guide the company. Merritt, who died in 2010 at age 79, was known for his generosity to employees, who are offered equity stakes in the firm.
“When people came to work at Merritt, they came for a career, not just a job,” Dorsey said. “We had always had this great culture. It was all about people. Leroy was there every day. He was fun to be around.”
While pursuing an MBA at Loyola University Maryland, Dorsey recalls feeling reassured when an ethics professor, a Jesuit priest, advised students on business priorities. He stressed responsibility to employees and subcontractors first, then to customers, then to owners, and finally to the community.
The guidance happened to align with Merritt’s values.
And it ran counter to a more common philosophy of maximizing shareholder wealth above all else.
“That’s not the way we work. We were always about people, about relationships,” Dorsey said. “I would go out, and I’d meet people and find out what kind of space they needed, and we’d design their space plan, and I’d get the permits and coordinate the construction. It was so satisfying. Every tenant was a different story.”
Barbara Simmons met Dorsey, then Merritt’s president, about 34 years ago when she was a recent college graduate and credit analyst for M&T Bank’s real estate investment group. Simmons would accompany executives to meet with developers seeking loans. All these years later, Simmons and M&T are still Merritt’s lender, but Simmons now heads the mid-Atlantic commercial real estate group as an executive vice president.
“I would not be the leader I am today and have the experience to lead the massive group for the bank that I lead without Scott,” Simmons said. “He was a client but kind of my teacher the entire way.”
Simmons called Dorsey “ridiculously technically smart” in development.
“And he has this ability to connect with people that is nothing like I’ve seen people do,” she said. “Despite Scott’s success, he still operates on a level of the average person and has never lost sight of knowing he can learn as much from his audiences as they learn from him.”
Growing up near Woodlawn, Dorsey had always expected to go into his father’s masonry and construction business. But his father died suddenly when he was a college senior. After graduation, he went to work for his cousin instead.
Leroy Merritt had started his company in 1967, initially teaming with developer Ed St. John to meet a demand for rental warehouse space, then a revolutionary concept. The partners built projects for four years before splitting the company. St. John formed Baltimore-based commercial real estate firm St. John Properties. After Dorsey’s father died in 1971, Dorsey went to work for Merritt.
The company has expanded beyond Baltimore, with offices in Northern Virginia, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida. Dorsey has stepped away from day-to-day operations, now handled by President Robb Merritt — Leroy’s son — and spends much of his time serving on company boards and on civic and charitable work.
In one such role, Dorsey served on the board of the Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools, where he worked with Debbie Phelps, the mother of former Olympic swimmer and medal record holder Michael Phelps.
“Scott is a visionary,” said Phelps, a former principal of Windsor Mill Middle School and the education foundation’s executive director from 2012 until she retired in January. “He’s very considerate and kind and very philanthropic for things dear to his heart.”
One of those areas, she said, is Baltimore County education. Through a partnership with the foundation, Merritt has provided space for two permanent teacher resource centers. At “Exchangerees,” teachers can shop monthly at no cost for supplies, all donated. More than $2.7 million worth of resources have been redistributed since 2018.
“Scott saw that need, and Merritt is supporting that,” she said.
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Scott Dorsey
Age: 75
Hometown: Woodlawn
Current residence: Cockeysville
Education: Milford Mill Academy; Cornell University, B.A.; Loyola University Maryland, M.B.A.
Career highlights: Joined Merritt as an assistant superintendent in 1972; became president in 1997 and CEO in 2010; currently chairman and CEO
Civic and charitable activities: Chair, Maryland Economic Development Corp.; chair, Maryland Free Enterprise Foundation (formerly Maryland Business for Responsive Government); board member and executive committee, Greater Baltimore Committee; vice chair, Baltimore County Economic Development Commission; board member for Baltimore County Economic Development Advisory Board, Baltimore Life Coaches, Stevenson University and Maryland Family Institute
Family: Married to Carolynne Dorsey; three daughters and one son (deceased); five grandchildren; one great-grandchild