You Never Know What You'll See in Key West - A True Story

Two of the things I love about Key West are our wonderful weather and that life here never is predictable. Take for example an incident that occurred a few years back when I was riding my bike to the old Club Body Tech on upper Duval Street. It was riding west in the 800 block of Washington Street around 6:00 AM. I remember it was still pitch black outside. Just after I passed the El Patio Motel I saw a young man in his early twenties walking down the middle of the street. There was nothing special about that, per se. This part of the Casa Marina Area does not have sidewalks. Many people walk in the street. But this guy was different. You see he was totally nude. He walked to my left. I looked back. Yep, he was buck naked. No doubt about it. I thought to myself that's too odd even for Key West. I circled the block and found a public phone at the youth hostel on South Street where I called the police. The operator asked me to describe the naked man. How was I supposed to answer that?

I got back on my bike and headed over to the corner of Reynolds and Washington Street which was the area where the nude dude should have reached by that point. I saw a young woman at the bus stop and asked if she had seen the nude man. She said she had. She said he disappeared behind some apartments on Washington Street.  I looked back and saw no sign of the guy. The young lady asked me to wait with her until her bus came.  I told her I had called the police and agreed to wait.

About 5 to 10 minutes elapsed before the police finally arrived. The nude man had totally vanished by this point. I flagged the cop's attention  He got out of his car and started to approach me. I started to describe what  I had seen earlier. Then I noticed the unclad lad emerge from between two apartment buildings. As I write this I just recalled the guy was then carrying a baseball bat. He did not have the bat the first time I saw him.  The cop saw him and walked toward him with his flashlight drawn and said "What in the hell do you think you're doing?" He put the guy in his patrol car and took him to the pokey. Later that day I looked at the Monroe County Sheriff's office website. The naked bat boy was being held on a mental health hold.

 You never know what you will see in Key West. That's just part of the fun about living in Paradise.

If you are thinking of buying a place in Key West please consider working with me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, email: kw1101v@aol.com.  I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

Key West Commercial Real Estate

Ever hear of Seller's Remorse? It is when a seller regrets having nixed a sale because he thought he could get more for the property at a later date only to find out that he was wrong. Dead wrong.

Such may be the case for the owner of a commercial condo CLICK HERE located in the same developments as our office, Duval Square at 1075 Duval Street.

The Duval Square is is a planned unit development that stretches from Duval to Simonton Street just one block south of Truman. There are several restaurants including Square One Restaurant plus various commercial businesses on the ground floor and about 22 two story townhomes on the second and third levels of the buildings. We are about four blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. Upper Duval has really changed in since the mid 1980's. Back then the world famous LaTeDa's guesthouse and restaurant were the primary commercial activity in the area. But two decades later there are many restaurants, galleries, guesthouses, and the Butterfly Conservancy that line the street.

Club Body Tech closed its doors two years ago. I was a member and the gym had been a thriving business. In my opinion the absentee owners hired a very poor manager that ran the business into the ground. Equipment got broken and wasn't repaired. The showers and locker rooms were never clean. The office was as messy as a pig sty. And the membership fees were very high compared to the level of service offered.

The condo owner has had the property on the market ever since the gym closed. The initial asking price was $1.3 million. That is $387 per square foot for the largest commercial space in the complex--3361 square feet. The first Realtor to list the property told me that the seller did have offers near the asking price but that he wouldn't budge off the asking price. Two years later the price was just reduced to $600,000 or less than half of the original asking price. The price per foot today is $178. There are three other commercial spaces also for sale and they are priced at $684 per sq ft (656 sq. ft.), $570 per sq. ft. (700 sq. ft.), and $873 per sq. ft (800 sq. ft.).

Now the owner of the former gym property bought the unit in 1996 and paid $300,000 so he will not lose and principal but his holding costs (taxes, insurance, association fees, cma fees, and debt service if any) are adding up. Two of the owners of the other units for sale bought at prices much lower than their asking price so they are alright as well. But I do think there prices are very aggressive for this market. The owner of the forth unit paid $450,000 three years ago and he must be bleeding. His space is across the courtyard from the old Club Body Tech and several different businesses have failed at that same location.

I think the owner of the commercial condo that was the Club Body Tech probably does have seller's remorse. And I think the sellers of the three other units for sale need to reassess their current asking prices. There is not a lot of commercial space for sale in Key West overall. There are, however, too many commercial spaces for sale of for lease on Duval. Duval Street property owners have gotten way to greedy for their own good. They charge exorbitant rent which causes small business owners to fail whether they lease or own the property because the lease payments or mortgage payments are too demanding. Other commercial areas of Key West seem to fare much better.

CLICK HERE to search for additional commercial properties in Key West and the lower Florida Keys. Then give me a call to help you find your next business in Paradise 305-766-2642 or email at garyethomas@aol.com.