Colie's Story
Founder & CEO
In 2019, Colie L Dooley founded Green Hybrid Habitat as a legacy project with the promise of “Giving Back”. Based in Wilmington, NC, Colie, and his team incorporate all aspects of the real estate process for the benefit of every potential homebuyer. Colie has spent nearly fifty years mastering the art of developing, designing, building, and selling residential real estate.
Following graduation, Colie enlisted and spent six years with the Air National Guard. Upon separation, he obtained a Borg Warner distributorship to sell one-hour dry cleaning plants, proving himself to be a natural-born salesperson. However, Colie found his true calling when he entered the residential real estate market as a sales associate in the late 1960s. Through persistence, determination, and initiative, Colie achieved abundant material success and prosperity professionally. Owning a mansion on the exclusive Figure 8 Island, two-row houses on Wrightsville Beach and an oceanfront duplex on Kure Beach was a far cry from growing up in a modest home in rural South Carolina. Colie was living his perception of the American Dream.
However, Colie fell to temptation by prizing material possessions, social status, and prestige above other values. Personally, Colie suffered tremendous spiritual deterioration through this time of his life. Though raised in a religious home and instrumental in the founding of College Acres Baptist Church, Colie had turned away from God. His devout wife, Frances, and children, Tres and Alicia, repeatedly and consistently encouraged him to practice his faith and begged him to abandon the carefree lifestyle. Fortunately, God is patient and would change his heart.
His son, Tres, was an athletic, ambitious, and righteous young man. Growing up in Wilmington, Tres spent long hours exploring and appreciating the beauty and wonders of the ocean. After graduation, Tres headed to Seattle, WA, where he received a Commercial Diver degree from the Divers Institute of Technology. Upon his return to the east coast, he attended Cape Fear Community College and graduated with a degree in Marine Technology. Though Tres’ passion was the water, by age 23, Colie had finally convinced his son to join the family business. He became his father’s right-hand man. His motto, “We do the job right, even when no one is looking” perfectly reflected the way Tres chose to do business and to live his life.
In 2011, at the age of 43, Tres suffered a massive “widow-maker” heart attack. He was immediately airlifted to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, where he continually suffered sudden cardiac arrest. As his family waited in despair, Colie left the hospital a crushed and brokenhearted man, but the spirit of God was upon him. In a moment of complete helplessness, Colie raised his hands to God and pleaded with Him to save his son. He vowed to make amends for all his transgressions and pledged to devote his life to serving Him and helping those in need.
Throughout the night, Tres drifted in and out of consciousness as his heart flatlined a total of 24 times. Unable to speak or move his eyes, and given a 2% chance of survival, Tres mustered every last ounce of strength and moved his thumb being held in a nurse’s hand. Miraculously, Tres survived and recovered from that horrific ordeal, despite the prediction of his medical team. Sadly, though, less than four years later, Tres would again suffer another heart attack. On the evening of December 12, 2014, God called His son home to Heaven.
Colie is writing a book about his personal journey back to his church called How God Finally Got My Attention.
“By the grace of God, Green Hybrid Habitats is a Christian-based company. We are called to give back to the communities where we build our homes with our Pay-It-Forward Program. God bless you all. Be joyful. Be still and watch God work. I thank Jesus for saving my soul, and I know that I will see Tres again someday in Heaven.”
– Colie Dooley