- 07 May 2025
A Legacy of Transition, Resilience, and What Works
By Keith Moore
On April 30th, the same day an article about The MBDA Transition was published, my family and I quietly celebrated what would have been my father’s 94th birthday in heaven.
LEGACY
George Thomas Moore wasn’t just my father – he was my business partner. In the early 70’s, Dad, Mom – a registered nurse – and my two aunts purchased a dilapidated hotel, one block from the beach in Asbury Park New Jersey. My father, who earned a GED, managed the 45-bed hotel with integrity, dignity, and with a compassion for its residents who were most often frail, elderly, and disabled. My entrepreneurial journey began here, at the age of 12, not by ambition, but by inheritance.
TRANSITION
The Miami Plaza Hotel, home of Bruce Springsteen, and Danny Divito, located just a few blocks from the historic Stone Pony, was more than just a family business. The former hotel is now vacant land as a reminder of legacy, and a well-known history of community service to Asbury Park and the State of New Jersey. After 25 years of operating the hotel for the disabled, mainly individuals released from hospitals like Marlboro Hospital, I convinced my family to convert the well-respected care facility into The EXODUS House. Transitioning the hotel made it a long-term residence for many Vietnam veterans suffering from post-war trauma and mental health challenges. It was our family’s first act of public service in what would become a lifetime of work rooted in community healing and transformation.
THE FOUNDATION FOR WHAT WORKS
So, after early success in the tech world, becoming in 1981 the youngest person to sell Ethernet, I returned to New Jersey in the mid-90s. I stepped back into the family business and encouraged my father to retire. After being convinced by the Welfare Director in Asbury Park that her clients needed a place to stop drinking, drugging, and becoming prison statistics, I took on the project of creating a house that engaged, educated, and empowered those suffering from addictions to reenter society with training, mentoring, and an inspiration to live life on life’s terms. After leasing the hotel and founding The EXODUS House, New Jersey’s first non-profit drug rehabilitation center, we expanded our efforts through a second location: the 98-bed M&M Rest Home in Millstone, NJ.
EXODUS House quickly became a sanctuary for individuals returning from prison and those referred by welfare agencies across the State. Our six-month recovery program produced remarkable outcomes, helping participants find employment, rebuild family connections, and reenter society with dignity. It was one of the most fulfilling periods of my life and the inspiration behind my book, Steppin In The Ring.
The community embraced us, and the work was honored – most notably with a Martin Luther King Jr Community Service of the Year Award. The recovering community traveled from as far as Newark NJ to Asbury Park just to experience the healing environment of the "House of Recovery By the Sea".
RESILIENCE
But the tides were shifting. In 1998-99, the State of New Jersey launched its new “Shore Easy” initiative to redevelop the beachfront. As other facilities were taken by eminent domain and demolished, to make way for new condominiums and hotels, I negotiated the sale of the Miami Plaza Hotel to the NJ Redevelopment Authority for $500,000 – a fair price in 1999. Today, the property is surrounded by modern condos and revitalized hotels.
Our next move was equally transformative. My family asked me to help reposition the M&M Rest Home. The M&M Rest Home was another old hotel – with twenty beds that my family expanded to a 98-bed fully functioning Elderly Residential Care facility. After 20 plus yeas of operating a successful care facility often at full capacity, we saw greater revenues in modernizing and so I went to work with family to transition the aging facility into a newly constructed 40-bed Assisted Living center, renamed M&M Manor. The work included an incredible amount of work with the State Health & Human Services, and the Department of Labor at the leadership level. After 30 plus years of operating, we eventually sold M&M Manor and its 5 acres. My sister and I led the process, which was featured in a compelling news article.
These real-world transitions became the foundation of my public service career. Encouraged by one of EXODUS’s board members, Deacon Oliver – who had been recording our interviews with clients – I entered the media world. That journey ultimately led to my launching one of the first Internet TV programs – focused on President Obama’s Open Government Directive.
To this day, I stand by the phrase: “Where there is Policy, there is Profit.” It’s not just a motto – it’s a personal truth born from experience.
After selling the Miami Plaza Hotel, I was appointed by Governor Christine Todd Whitman as New Jersey’s first-ever Urban Account Manager at the Commerce & Economic Growth Commission. I later joined her in Washington under the Bush Administration. In August 2001, just before my father's eternal graduation in 2003, I founded KDM & Associates, LLC.
Our first client, RSIS Corporation, was awarded a $1 Billion contract with the Department of Energy. Meanwhile, my mother, sister, and I continued to manage the real estate portfolio and business interests Dad left behind, until Mom transitioned in August 2020 to join my Dad to live out their eternal life together.
Fast forward to this year – April 30, 2025. On the same day I delivered a presentation on the MBDA Federal Procurement Center’s transition to KDM & Associates, LLC at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, my sister and I finalized the sale of our family’s homestead in New Jersey. April 30th was and always will be an emotional milestone for me. That same afternoon, at 4:32 pm, I received an email letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce confirming the termination of the MBDA Federal Procurement Center “for cause.”
The final line of the letter received from our Grants Management office read: “We will provide you further instructions on the shutdown.”
This article is more than a story. It's a blueprint for navigating disruption, honoring legacy, and transforming challenge into opportunity.
This is what I know. This is who I am. A life, committed to What Works!
Keith D. Moore, CEO of KDM & Associates, LLC
