When Phil Rampy bought his Thornton Avenue home in downtown Orlando in 1988, he was afraid to walk on his block at night. When he first started selling real estate in the neighborhood, he would drive clients around in big loops to avoid then-trashy Lake Eola. "You wouldn't dare drive a client by there," he laughs. "We all called it Lake Eerie-ola."
Today, Rampy is laughing all the way to the bank. Thornton Park, the neighborhood he started his career in 14 years ago, is now among the trendiest addresses in Orlando. The old bungalow that Rampy bought for $60,000 has been sold three times since, most recently for upward of $200,000. It's one of the cheapest homes in a neighborhood that now includes upscale boutiques and trendy restaurants like La Fontella and Out of Hand Burrito Stand. Now, the agents who work for Rampy at Olde Town Brokers point out idyllic Lake Eola each time they show a new client the neighborhood.
In the works for Rampy, 39, and partner Craig Ustler, 32, is Thornton Park Central, a 175,000-sq.-ft., $20-million commercial project with retail and restaurants on the first floor and 56 residential lofts on the second through fifth floors -- all hiding a 350-car parking garage in the center. Rampy and Ustler turned down most of the national chains that wanted to locate in Thornton and went into the community to persuade already-successful Orlando businesses to open downtown stores there. The mix includes an independent bookstore, gourmet grocery, wine bar and sushi lounge.
Rampy and Ustler are among a once-renegade group of young developers in Orlando who shunned the suburbs and sprawl of Orange County in favor of projects in the urban core. Michael Halpin, 39, also got his start renovating his own little bungalow in downtown Orlando during the early 1990s recession "when coming downtown was definitely not the thing to do." Halpin now develops residential and mixed-use properties with a historic feel. His Ruth Court/Livingston Commons project recently turned a condemned set of buildings across from an ugly downtown parking garage into four two-story office buildings with the feel of historic homes and seven Mediterranean-style, three-story townhome condos that face into a lush courtyard and pool. Still under construction, all have been sold, each for about $400,000.
The most visible of the city's "urban cowboys" is Cameron Kuhn, who folds his 6-foot-3, 300-pound frame into a bright red electric cart to take clients and visitors on tours of the 15 commercial buildings he owns and manages downtown. Kuhn, 42, grew up in a Chicago contracting family and has been swinging a hammer ever since he can remember. He moved to Orlando from Chicago in 1991 and began to buy "the worst nightmares you could buy -- fire damage, environmental problems -- whatever nobody else wanted, that's what I would pick up."
Those nightmares are now dreamy office buildings with 100% occupancy, such as the Central Arcade, the Wall Street Plaza, the Angebilt Hotel and the old ABC Liquors warehouse -- most of them with hardwood floors, brick walls and high ceilings with exposed beams. Kuhn, who is renovating the historic Post Office downtown, laments his unsuccessful attempt to buy the Church Street Station property: "That would have been perfect for me," he says. "Now, every cool, great building downtown is done. I need to figure out what to do next."
Also in the Works Downtown
- The $53-million Hughes Supply corporate offices and West Church Street Apartments, both by Bank of America Development Corp.
- The new, $63-million federal courthouse.
- Florida A&M University's new College of Law.
Miami
When Henry Flagler developed central Miami at the turn of the century, he saw it as a commercial center. Neither he nor anyone else built any residences, leaving the area bereft of the stately old homes, cozy bungalows and deco apartment buildings that have spurred other downtown revitalizations, including in nearby Miami Beach.
Miami leaders long wanted to revitalize Flagler's old stomping grounds, an area now bordered by NW 5th Street, I-95, Biscayne Boulevard and the Miami River. Getting people to live downtown is generally the first step in such a turnaround, but what do you do if there's no place to live? "You build some apartments," says Rafael Kapustin, the first developer willing to build residences in the area eight years ago, when the banks wouldn't consider financing such projects. "It's extremely difficult psychologically, but you go with your instinct and you take the first step."
With subsidies from the city and federal governments, Kapustin turned a three-story building he owned into 24 subsidized apartments. He soon did it again, and then again. Other developers followed suit. All have found they can keep the units 100% occupied.
But for true revitalization, clearly, someone needed to step up and build market housing. Re-enter Kapustin. He and Sergio Rok are converting a commercial building at 101 E. Flagler St. into the first condominium project ever in the historic part of downtown. They are relying on subsidies from the city and county to sell the condos below cost; for about $100,000 each. "We're not looking to make great profits; we just want to light the spark," Kapustin says. "We have enough property downtown that if we succeed, we will benefit." The $15-million Flagler First project has been on the drawing board for just a few weeks, and they've collected 90 deposits on the 90 units -- with no formal marketing. They're already planning a 300-unit second phase that's expected to exceed $35 million.
Jacksonville
The family behind the most extensive development project ever proposed in Jacksonville is getting used to thinking big. Over the past 25 years, Carlton Spence and his son, Jeff, built a small warehouse refrigeration business into one of the largest privately held companies in Jacksonville, with $45 million in revenues last year.
In 1999, the low-key father and son team bought the old Jacksonville Shipyards property, 45 acres of barren riverfront land near Alltel Stadium in downtown. They had eyed it, simply, as a place to grow their business. But they quickly saw that revitalization of the area connecting Jacksonville's urban core and stadium would be the best use of the property. Now the men, ages 70 and 45, are embarking on the largest -- and most expensive -- development in Jacksonville's history. They have no development experience, a shortfall Jeff Spence says they made up for by searching the globe for the top experts in the field: New York's Henry Lambert is their development partner; Sasaki & Associates of Watertown, Mass., the master-planner; Sandy & Babcock International, the architectural firm. "They all bring their expertise to the table, while we bring the site and the vision and the stewardship," Spence says. "Because we're local, we bring a crucial interest in the end product, which we want to be proud of. We want it to be a legacy."
Spence says his market research shows that Jacksonville residents "have a tremendous, pent-up demand" for downtown waterfront housing. "The citizens of Jacksonville are in love with the St. Johns River," he says. "And we're opening a mile-long stretch of it that's been blocked up for over 100 years."
The Shipyards
Developer: Carlton and Jeff Spence.
Location: Jacksonville riverfront along Bay Street between Metropolitan Park and Berkman Plaza.
Scope: 662 residential units totaling more than 1 million square feet; two office towers containing 910,000 square feet; a 350-room hotel; and 175,000 feet of office and commercial/retail space.
The project also includes an 8,000-foot extension of Riverwalk and a 17-acre riverfront park to be completed before the city hosts the Super Bowl in 2005.
Cost: $782 million.
Subsidies: $75 million appropriated by the Jacksonville City Council.
Pensacola
When Deborah Dunlap first stepped onto Pensacola's historic Palafox Street in 1982, she knew she wanted to buy one of the old buildings that reminded her of New Orleans. Her husband said he'd build her anything she wanted and make it look historic, but he didn't think it was smart to invest in something a century old.
Twelve years later and divorced, she still pined for an old building. In 1994, she plunked her entire savings into one on Palafox. Since then, she's dealt with the nightmarish plumbing problems that come with 100-year-old terra cotta pipes, mopped up after serious hurricanes, including Opal in 1995, and lost many nights' sleep pondering her bank loans. To do downtown revitalization, "you either have to be a crazy person with a dream or a wealthy person with a dream," Dunlap says. "I'm the crazy one."
Today, Dunlap owns 11 storefronts on Palafox, all near the Spanish Baroque-style Saenger Theatre that draws tourists and Pensacolans alike to downtown. The area, which used to be deserted at night, is now a hot spot. Her tenants, including a mom-and-pop Italian restaurant, a dress boutique, an art gallery, a delicatessen, a Birkenstock store and a specialty shop for birders, rarely move out. When one does, she has a replacement within days.
Dunlap has learned that besides having a "crazy," or risk-taking, streak, the two other keys to successful downtown entrepreneurship are getting involved with local government and helping fellow businesspeople rather than viewing them as competition. City officials say Dunlap is a feisty watchdog when it comes to downtown. Last fall, she worked tirelessly to keep the county constitutional offices downtown, overcoming heavy pressure from suburbanites to move them to a more central location. Now Dunlap is actively involved in the city's efforts to redevelop the nearby waterfront -- a tricky proposition because of a poorly sited sewage-treatment plant that is not just ugly, but often stinks and sometimes spews waste into Pensacola Bay.
Some of Dunlap's fellow downtown entrepreneurs aren't keen on waterfront revitalization because they believe it will take away downtown business. "I don't see it that way," she says. "Downtowns can succeed the same way malls succeeded -- the more we can put down here, the more business we'll have. You just need to keep taking chances."