Buyer's Choice on Rockland Key, Florida

It's not all that often that potential home buyers in Key West can pick among two or more similar homes located almost next door to each other, but that is exactly the opportunity awaiting buyer for 29 Calle Uno and 35 Calle Uno on Rockland Key, Florida. Rockland Key is located at Mile Marker 9 or about a ten minute drive from Old Town. 

Both houses are elevated concrete block construction 1,200 Sq Ft in size with three bedrooms and two baths that set on a 7,000 Sq Ft Lot on a canal. 

29 Calle Uno

29 Calle Uno is offered for sale at $735,000. CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos. 

35 Calle Uno

35 Calle Uno is offered for sale at $739,000. CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos. 

The above photo of Rockland Key was taken by Ty Symroski in 1988, the same year these two homes were built. Key West and environs have changed so much in the past 33 years. The popularity of Key West and the Florida Keys as a vacation destination has generated a huge source of tax revenue to fund major improvements to city and county projects. Many home buyers prefer being close to Key West but not in Key West. Living on a canal with immediate access to the Gulf of Mexico has its advantages. Not all homeowners have boats. But many do. You owe it to yourself to see if there is a boat in your future. You choose. 

Judges - The Good, The Bad, and The Dead

Long time readers may recall that I lived all of my life in Colorado until I moved to Key West in late 1993. I was an attorney in a suburban law firm  just west of Denver and later worked in banking. I worked in a five man suburban law firm where we handled legal matters for regular folks - family law, wills and estates, business matters, real estate, bankruptcy, traffic and criminal defense. In June 1993 I went to work for the RTC before moving to Key West. Today's blog is the true tale of three judges before whom I practiced law. It's a not a tell all. It's not a tall tale. It's the truth.

THE BAD
I believe it was in the early spring of 1977 when I represented a young man who received a traffic ticket in Summit County, Colorado. I knew when I first met him the ticket was fatally defective because the officer charged the defendant with violating the 1963 Colorado Revised Statue which was repealed and replaced in 1973. I set the matter for trial and met my client at the county court house in Breckenridge on the appointed date. 

The case was tried to the a count court judge - no jury. The deputy d.a. called the police officer as his first witness. The officer was sworn in and stated his name. I stood up and moved the court to dismiss the case. I informed the court the defendant had been charged with violating an offense under the former and since repealed and replaced statute. I then stated jeopardy had attached since the witness was sworn and started to testify. The judge was angered. He said something to the effect that he would have the officer arrest the defendant again and start the process all over. I was incredulous. I remember asking the judge if he was ordering the officer to "arrest" my client and then suggested the court was "taking sides" in the legal proceedings. The judge backed off and dismissed the case. The judge recessed the court and asked me to come into his chambers. I told my client to get in his car and return back to Denver and not to speed. I asked him to call me if the police issued a new citation which I doubted would happen. Then I went into the judge's chamber where he tried to chew me out in private - with no court reporter present to transcribe what he said. I stood my ground. My client was not charged again.

If you have a couple of hours watch The Trial of the Chicago 7. You'll quickly appreciate watching a federal judge take the side of the prosecution. I remember watching the actual trial play out on the CBS Evening New with Walter Cronkite nearly fifty years ago. The trial seemed to go on forever. I could not understand how a federal judge could do what Judge Hoffman did. Upon appeal, all of the convictions were reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on the basis that the judge was biased. In real life regular people cannot afford the time and money to appeal rulings and convictions of biased judges. It does not matter if a county judge or federal judge takes the side of the prosecution. The system does not work when the court is not fair.

THE GOOD

I left the court house in Breckenridge and headed back toward Denver to attend a bar association luncheon honoring retiring District Judge Roscoe Pile. I started to speed my way down Interstate 70. I was about forty-five minutes away from town when I saw a Colorado State Patrol car on the right side of the road. I tried to slow down but it was too late. Red lights went on. I pulled over and waited to meet my fate. Up walked Officer Joe Pascoe. I knew him from my days clerking in the Jefferson County Courts. He approached my car and then recognized me. He asked where I was going in such a hurry. I told him Judge Pile's farewell lunch. He moaned and groaned and told me he would have to let me go without a citation because I would probably get out of it and he did not want to waste his time. I found a photo of him and another officer at Westland Shopping Center in Lakewood, Colorado in 1969 where they were teaching children how to safely walk across the street.

I made it to the luncheon on time. The place was packed with lawyers. I tried one of my most difficult cases in Judge Pile's court. I represented middle aged engineer at DOW Chemical. He was divorcing his wife and seeking custody of the couples' five or six children and possession of the family home. This was forty years ago when husbands were rarely granted custody or the house. The hearing lasted a couple of days. The wife was a wacko. During one afternoon recess she lunged at me in the hallway. I thought she was going to scratch my eyes out. Her attorney grabbed her and pulled her away. I did not mention the altercation with the judge. He may have heard about it from others. Judge Pile awarded my client custody of the children and the house. The children were relieved.

THE DEAD

From THE DAILY JUDGE 

© 2007 Burton Randall Hanson

Archive - 05.26.2007 - 07.02.2007

"All the news that gives judges and lawyers fits."

"In 1978, Jefferson County District Judge George Priest was shot at by his disgruntled colleague, County Judge E.A. Howard Baker Jr., who then took his own life. Although Priest was the victim of the shooting, it was believed to play a role in his removal from the bench in a subsequent retention election later that year...." 

Judge Baker's court room was on fourth floor of the Jefferson County Hall of Justice. The story I heard was that Judge Baker was pissed that Judge Priest lured Baker's division clerk, Charlene, to work for Priest. Judge Baker waited at window of his fourth floor chambers and took aim at Judge Priest after he exited his car that morning. Judge Baker's gunshot missed Judge Priest. Judge Baker went to his chair, sat down, and and shot himself to death.

I clerked for another judge on the same floor for three years while attending law school. I was classmates with two of Judge Baker's legal staff assistants. Neither of them ever said anything negative about Judge Baker nor did Charlene, his division clerk. She was a very attractive middle aged woman. She was always efficient and very friendly to all court house staff and attorneys. I never sensed anything between the Judge and Charlene. I couldn't fathom him having feelings for anyone. He had an air of superiority about him. I think he relished sitting up on the bench looking down at the guilty bastards. I think most judges are not liked. But Judge Baker especially was not liked. That is a fact and not conjecture. I tried a couple of cases in his court and was always treated fairly. Like Joe Friday I am just reporting the facts. 

 

A Joy to Behold

The tree house of all tree houses, except, maybe, Kevin's from Home Alone. Located on a quiet street in the Mid-town area of Key West, it stood as sentinel for all that went on before the age of Ring Doorbells save it did not have a time-stamp video recording device. Imagine sitting up there with bros, binoculars, root beers, and keeping track of what is going on. Memories are made of this.

I think some big grown-up kid actually built that. What do you think? Imagine all the planning, buying lumber, hauling it to the house, measuring and cutting, hammering and puttering, that went into creating that kid's tree house. A joy to behold. 

I was driving in the area a few weeks ago and finally stopped to take a photo of the site for posterity. I knew the tree house was lost after Hurricane Irma. I know I reported we did not have any significant loss of homes in Key West. That is still true, but this loss is significant in a different way.  All the big boys who drive by this corner that remember what used to be must cringe every time they see that vacant space. I do.
 

Would You Rent to a Bodybuilder or Person with OCD?

 

The good thing about growing older is that I can still remember things both from my youth and from my recent past. Not all people can do that. So is a blessing.  

Twenty years ago I worked out with a personal trainer five days a week. We became friends of sort - you share life experiences when you are in close proximity 45 minutes each day five days a week. He lived a couple of blocks away from me in Key West. I knew the property. There were four or five one bedroom apartments. He told me his building had an outdoor shower and that he shaved his entire body every day. Every day. With hot water. With hot water!

He was a twenty-something former wrestler with a great build. He was obsessed with himself. This was a short time before selfies came into existence. Now everyone seems to be obsessed with themselves. But his shaving everyday seemed particularly vain. And costly to his landlord. I discussed the water usage with him. It did not concern him - it was the landlord's obligation to provide hot water.

A man I sold a house to a few years ago recently complained about his gay tenant. It is not that the tenant is gay, it is that the guy is a professional gay with OCD. The owner mistakenly permitted the tenant to use his pool when the owner is not home and to use his washer and dryer which are located outside (common in maybe half the homes in town), and to use his outdoor shower which is filled with orchids (not the shower in the above photo but similar). The customer said the tenant takes a shower before he goes to the Island House gym which has a steam room then takes another shower when he returns from the gym. The guy swims in the pool and takes another shower afterward. And so on. He also washes his towels and bedding constantly. The good thing is the tenant does not wear a lot of clothing. 

It is illegal to discriminate in housing. But maybe it should not be to some people. 

Ya'll know I am kidding about the maybe part.

Dick Duane

From THE KEY WEST CITIZEN, OBITUARIES, FEBRUARY 3, 2021

(with photos and remarks by me)

Dick Duane, 91, a former long-time Key West resident, died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. He began his extraordinary career as a MGM contract player, then a well-known singer, advertising executive, literary agent and was true renaissance man. Dick lost a valiant battle against colon cancer. He was instrumental in the creation of the novel “Midnight Cowboy,” written by James Leo Herlihy, and the subsequent packaging of the Academy Award-winning film of the same name. The novel is dedicated to him, as well.

[MIDNIGHT COWBOY premiered in the summer of 1969 amid all the chaos of that era. For me it was a seminal event. Rated "X", it exposed a gritty part of life most Americans had never contemplated. Making MIDNIGHT COWBOY happen was monumental. All that followed are derivative.]

[James Leo Herlihy's house at 709 Bakers Lane. I sold this house in 2010. Google and read the stories about Herilhy's time in Key West and the people and parties at Bakers Lane. Broadway impresario Jerry Herman lived on nearby William Street and created a secret gate at the rear of his property to lessen the walk to Bakers Lane.]

Following several appearances as a solo artist on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and several gold records, he appeared regularly in most major nights clubs in the country and internationally during the 1950s.--

 He produced the off-Broadway play “Stop, Your Killing Me” by James Leo Herlihy (author of “Midnight Cowboy”) at the 73rd Street Theater in 1969. As a board member of Lorillard & Co. and through his company, Duane Enterprises, Dick created major advertising campaigns for Kent brand cigarettes as well as Newport and True Blue brands.

In 1973, Dick, with his partner Robert Thixton, formed Pinder Lane Productions, which quickly grew into a successful award-winning music and film production company in New York City. In 1985, the company expanded and became the celebrity talent booking agency for BBDO New York and subsequently BBDO Worldwide and its affiliates, as well as other major ad agencies throughout the world, signing film stars, performing artists and former vice presidents to endorse and appear in numerous commercials and, in effect created branding.

 

[4 Pinder Lane, Key West was the home Dick Duane and Robert Thixton shared. I wrote about it several times over the years. Robert Thixton's niece, Mary, a Key West Realtor, told me stories of the New York and Hollywood royalty who stayed or partied at this home including Tallulah Bankhead clad in flowery pedal-pushers could sometimes be seen at Fausto’s Food Palace, Cary Grant, Leonard Bernstein, Burt Reynolds, and Anne Jackson among many others who were guests. 

 

I first saw this property about in 2009 when it was listed (with an adjacent cottage that has since been sold) at the then asking price of $4.5 million. My buyers were so taken by this property that they required a second visit that evening.  "Wow!" would be an appropriate description. Duane and Thixton created two Romeo and Juliet balconies inside the house from which the owners or guests might burst into song during soirées. The sun-drenched pool looked like a Hollywood movie set.]

 

 

A successful literary agent with several Key West authors as clients, he was co-owner of Pinder Lane and Garon-Brooke literary Agency, which still represents major literary clients. He is survived by his husband of 50 years, Robert Thixton, who has continued to operate both companies; brother-in-law William F. Thixton (Cathy), sister’s-in-law Christina Ann Knight and Mary Elizabeth Thixton and close Key West friends including Lynn Kaufelt, Jackson Kaufelt, Evangeline Washington, Barbara Robinson, Ernestine Curry, Jim Hogan and Brenda Myren and all who adopted him as theirs and loved him. An important human being graced this world and is now gone. There will be small private service. A video memorial film will be available at a later date.

Dick Duane at a 1986 Key West Literary Seminar which he and David Kaufelt co-founded. Photo credit Jeffrey Cardenas

914 Frances Street, Key West - Old Town Two Story Duplex

Just Listed, but not by me, 914 Frances Street, Key West. This is a fully restored and enhanced two story legal duplex located in the "X" Flood Zone in Old Town. I searched my old shoebox and found a photo taken of the same property 55 years ago. See below.

 

I also searched the historic Sanborn Fire Maps to determine when this property was built. The early maps show a Chinese laundry located at the corner of Division Street at Frances (current day Truman Avenue and the site of Bare Assets) plus a series of small cigar maker cottages in a row then a vacant lot where 914 Frances was built sometime between 1899 to 1912. The photo three above shows modernization to the original house with wrought iron porch posts, aluminum awnings, jalousie windows and metal louver front door. Wrought iron columns were popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I suspect the second floor front was originally an open porch which was later enclosed and the side staircase added when the upstairs was made into a second living unit. 

Both units have private entrances and separate rear main level deck spaces. The main level front door opens into a staircase which leads to the upper unit. See photos below. The downstairs unit is accessed by the door located midway on the right side. That door opens into the great room area. The two bedrooms and bath are located at the front of the building in both first and second floor.

The property has 2,160 Sq Ft of living space under air divided equally between the upper and lower units. Both are two bedroom, two bath plus large great room and kitchen. The units are vacant and both easy to show and not encumbered by current tenants. This gives a new owner the opportunity to move into one and rent the other if that is in your bucket list. Locals will appreciate  the convenient location within easy walking distance to Duval Street and the seaport.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 914 Frances Street, Key West offered for sale at $1,479,000 (or $684 per sq ft). A 2/2 in Shipyard condos but only 646 Sq Ft is offered at $1,082 per sq ft. Having a permanent place to live, full time monthly rental income, and priced at a better price per sq ft is certainly reason to take a look at this property. Please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to set up a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.  

Disparate House Buys in Key West - 2021

  I tell my real life buyers the same thing I write in my blog, that houses here are all so different that the Zillow algorithm is not all that good at predicting the value or sales price of homes in Key West. I wrote a blog in November 2009 discussing the disparity of similarly priced homes located in good locations. I am doing the search right now as I write today's blog. Let's see what we discover. 

*Disparate Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English desparat, from Latin disparatus, past participle of disparare to separate, from dis- + parare to prepare — more at pare Date: 15th century 1 : containing or made up of fundamentally different and often incongruous elements 2 : markedly distinct in quality or character synonyms see different" from the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary. I thought it would be interesting to compare similarly priced properties that are located in good locations in the Old Town, Casa Marina and Meadows areas of Key West. The point of the comparison is to show the disparity of similarly priced homes in desirable locations. My criteria:

Property Type Residential Include Property Sub-type Single Family Status Active, Price 1,600,000 to 2,000,000, Mile Marker 1-2 (When I did the same search in 2009 there were ten homes in the $1.6 to 1.8 range. Today there were only 4. I increased the search criteria to $2. and found 16 homes. I will start from the least expensive and offer five for your consideration.)

1318 Petronia Street

$1,600,000 or  $1155 per sq ft for this 1,385 sq ft Meadows Area 3/3 with pool and off street parking. Nice and clean appearing. 

1408 Petronia Street 

$1.775,000 or $1080 per sq ft for this 1,642 sq ft 3/3 with rear guest cottage but no off street parking also in the Meadows area.

711 Olivia Street

$1.824,000 or1,884 per sq ft for this 1,504 sq ft plus guest cottage, off street parking and pool located in Old Town - about four blocks from Duval.

 

 1013 South Street

$1,995,000 for this 2,856 sq ft 4/4 with pool and off street parking located in the Casa Marina area. 

804 Elizabeth Street

$1,999,900 for this 2,046 sq ft or $977 per sq ft eyebrow house located in Old Town with pool and off street parking located two blocks from Duval.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL OF THE HOUSES ON TODAY'S LIST which have an average list price of $1,887,556 or $941 per sq ft.  I could have narrowed the search to a specific dollar amount. The result would have been pretty much the same but the fewer houses would not have shown the dispareity I see when showing houses. Houses in this price range are almost always in prime conditon. Buyers will often see significant differences at lower price points.