The Commercial Projects of Key West - Spring 2022

 

Sometimes we drive by a commercial building so often that we fail to notice subtle and not-so-subtle changes. Sometimes buildings are razed and replaced with new buildings and we cannot remember what was there before. Today's blog is part of a continuing series of blogs to create an internet memory of the commercial construction projects of Key West over the past few years. I write "years" because few things move quickly in this town when it comes to construction. There are exceptions - usually an owner or developer brings in a crew from elsewhere. He ; houses and feeds the workers and gets a project built much quicker. Key West builders prefer the other method - draw the project out as long as possible. It takes time to create perfect. Lets see what has happened since the previous blog:

901 Fleming Street. This is an historic three story commercial building located in the heart of Old Town. It had a combination of office space, commercial space, and one apartment.  Some pre- renovation photos follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 It appears the building has been hollowed out and the footings below rebuilt stabilizing the building.

 

CLICK HERE to view more photos of this ongoing project.  

 

1100 Kennedy Drive - The Key West Aqueduct Authority Office Building 

Its a funny thing about government buildings in Key West - they all started to fall apart and become unsafe for government workers during the past several years. Our fire houses, city hall, electricity provider all became unsafe within a few years. The FKAA was relocated to another site, the building raze, the ground prepared for new construction, and the rebuilding started. I took a series of construction photos. And I need to say that construction on this building defies my snarky comment on most other construction. This building went up quickly. The building is very attractive. It even has a nice north facing outdoor deck for some official business to take place.

 

October 2020 just after former building razed. Ground work began.

December 2020

 

February 2021

 

May 2021

 

January 2022

CLICK HERE for more photos

532 Duval Street 

This truly is an historic property located at one of two of the busiest streets in Old Town - corner of Southard and Duval Streets. The black and white photos show the building at its best - decades ago before Key West was a real town. I started taking photos when scaffolding went up. The adjacent property on Southard Street began renovation at the same time. Same owner. Same contractor.  532 Duval was recently completed. Very disappointed in that. Southard still is not done. 

 

July 2020

 

Southard Street July 2020 - Same owner. Same Contractor

October 2020  Building is being stabilized New Columns added

October 2020

 

March 2022

 

March 2022

CLICK HERE to view no progress photos

2308 North Roosevelt Boulevard

Conch Republic Liquors  2012

  

October 2019

I started taking photos of this property as soon as I noticed yellow plastic tape encircling the building. This building a perfect example of not remembering what used to be at a place you drive by every day. I think I may have gone inside the liquor store one time. I found the photo in our MLS  as well as the aerial photo which show the location opposite the Key West Yacht Club. North Roosevelt Boulevard has changed by leaps and bounds compared to when I first visited Key West in the mid 1980s. The road itself was rebuilt a few years ago. This is the main thoroughfare into the historic district. Today there is a beautiful esplanade with tall palm trees and wide sidewalks where people walk, jog, skate, cycle nest to the Gulf of Mexico. It is quite impressive. Several hotels were rebuilt at the same time.

Not too long after I moved to Key West in the early 1990s Boston Market opened a restaurant at 2514 North Roosevelt. It failed and later became a branch of Centennial Bank. A few years ago the old Banner Tire store was razed and was replaced with a Sonic Drive-in. The place is rarely busy. I don't think it will survive. The old Burger King was also razed and replaced with a Popeye's. Same. Rarely busy. It may become a bank or something else. 

I am not sure what will become of 2208 North Roosevelt. It is going up very quickly. I have taken a few photos which you may view below. 

Three years ago the ground on which the Sonic Drive-in was elevated about three feet above original grade lever. I believe that was and still is current building code. The Capitana Hotel across the street was totally rebuilt at the same time. The entire parcel was elevated as well I have been puzzled why other new construction and some "renovations"were not required to elevate the base. I am not inferring anything fishy is going on. Or am I?

 

Key West Real Estate Trivia - No 4

 

I posted this photo before and got called out for an incorrect description. That's okay because I wasn't 100% correct. The photo shows a horse drawn tram on Division Street in 1890. Look carefully at the On Wo Laundry sign located on the lower right corner. The words "Frances Street" appear on the top rail. There is a somewhat vacant lot on the opposite side of the street which in prior days and modern times is also Frances Street. Division Street and later Truman Avenue is the main street in Key West and divides the historic district into two parts the most famous being Old Town North of Truman and the other Old Town South of Truman.

The Trivia Question is what is located in the "vacant lot" today? I'll make the answer easy by showing photos in my old shoebox and some master craft detective work gained by watching decades of Perry Mason reruns.I really searched through the old shoebox and could not find an historic building located on the once empty lot. But I did find a photo of a gas station that looks to have been built sometime just before or after World War II. There are no 50s or 60s cars in that photo. The photo shows the location as being a large lot.

Then I found two photos from the 1960s that show a large corner lot with a liquor store on the right side, a bar in the middle, and apartments on the second floor. I was pretty sure I knew the location - the corner of Truman Avenue and Frances Street. I checked the Monroe County Property Appraiser records. The building was built in 1964 which explains the dresses and hairdos of the ladies. What is not explained is the roof-top deck with trees. Was the White Inn Bar something else on the top?

If you look closely at the 1985 photo of a bus kissing the phone pole at the corner of Truman and Frances, you will see the name of the bar was then called Big Daddy's.  I'm kinda guessing here, but I think the establishment became more than a bar by that point.

Today the once empty lot at the corner of Division Street at Frances Street is now a gentleman's club with private rooms and suites and a package liquor store. The company website says date established was 2001. I remember going there a few years earlier when there were two bars side-by-side. One bar was for men interested in wathing ladies dance. The other bar was called "Number"which featured young men doing the same thing and also for men.  I recall some "disagreement "between the two bar operators. I don't really know what happened after that. Except every time I drive past that bar the man in the back seat or riding shotgun next to me knows exactly what goes on.

 

 
 

 

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Emotional Support Dog for Real Estate Sales

 

Selling a home, buying a home, dealing with inspection issues, structural defect or boundary line issues, unpleasant renter issues, code violation issues, fake news issues, and more can make anyone go half-crazy. Some sellers, buyers, agents, neighbors, renters, city officials are crazy to begin with. Many become more crazy if given the chance. 

I'm sure you have seen TV ads with actors pretending to be real people discussing how much money they saved by using a "Perfect Realtor"website where they saved thousand of dollars in real estate commissions. After all that Realtors do is put up a sign and collect the commission. Anybody can do that. Right?

I don't know how much real world experience "Perfect Realtors" have in general. They may have a lot. Or not so much. I wonder how they deal with screwball issues like the ones referenced above in a non-perfect world where other real people are going through a divorce, a death, an economic hardship, loss of a job, or whatever real life events precipitate a sale of one's home.

I have more business than I can handle right now. So this blog is not a rage against internet sites or a particular deal I am dealing with. I don't know that just because a Realtor charges a higher commission than the norm would be any better than one who charges less. I do believe experience counts. 

I firmly believe a good lick from your dog is worth more than any amount of money from any source. 

 

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 41

from January 16, 2014

3529  Sunrise Drive,  Key West, Florida

Matthew Broderick and Tom Cruise were born in 1963.  3529 Sunrise Drive in Key West Florida was built in 1963.  Each will become 51 years old in 2014.  The two movie stars take good care of themselves and probably look better than a lot of people their age.  Men and women who workout and take care of their bodies, skin, and hair normally look better than those who don't.

A lot of my buyers are in their fifties. Many probably grew up in a house built in the 1960s when contemporary design was the trend.  The house at 3529 Sunrise Drive was custom built by the owner who has lovingly maintained this property ever since.  The house is big. The Monroe County Property Appraiser shows this house as having 3378 sq ft of interior living space. The house sits on an 8937 sq ft lot (138' X 65') just across the street from the Riviera Canal that ends a few blocks to the east where water flows into the Atlantic Ocean.  The houses across the street benefit from being located on the water.  This house is every bit as nice or nicer than most of the original houses in the area.  And the houses across the street all cost a whole lot more than this house.

The home at 3529 Sunrise Drive incorporates many of the features of large suburban homes built during the early 1960s including multiple living levels, large rooms, vaulted ceilings, and large outdoor living areas. The listing Realtor describes the property this way:

"Everything you want in Key West living. Plenty of room both inside and out for entertaining or just relaxing with the family. Vaulted ceilings and large rooms make the interior exceedingly livable. A walled lot, lush landscaping, large pool and several covered outside seating areas along with offstreet, covered parking make this an ideal property. This is a home that you can live in tomorrow or add personal touches to create your own island oasis."

Events, styles, trends, fads, they all last for a while but many impact our lives for years or decades into the future. When you are young, you tend to live in the moment. As you get older, you learn that not everything in the world revolves around you. As you get much older, you may learn that what you do or say or think is of no consequence to anybody. That's sort of what happens to styles, trends and fads-they get ignored or displaced or even replaced. Styles that were hip become passe. Maybe that's why for many people buying a house in the Old Town area of Key West is so safe: old is always popular there. Even cherished.

If you are old enough to remember the 1960s you will recall the space race and the New Frontier. You will remember the forward thinking we embraced. Our TV, our culture, our furniture and home goods, and our architecture reflected the hopes and dreams as aspirations of that time. Some homes today still have fallout shelters that were built in the 1960s, a different and sad face of the culture of that time.

The home at 3529 Sunrise Drive incorporates many of the features of large suburban homes built during the early 1960s including multiple living levels, large rooms, vaulted ceilings, and large outdoor living areas. It is time for buyers to consider houses like this that have plenty of good years left as alternatives to much more expensive homes in the Old Town and Casa Marina areas.

The listing Realtor describes the property this way:

" Everything you want in Key West living. Plenty of room both inside and out for entertaining or just relaxing with the family. Vaulted ceilings and large rooms make the interior exceedingly livable. A walled lot, lush landscaping, large pool and several covered outside seating areas along with off street, covered parking make this an ideal property. This is a home that you can live in tomorrow or add personal touches to create your own island oasis."

3529 Sunrise Drive is a big house located a on a large lot on the east side of Key West- just about four blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. It is far removed from the hub bub of Old Town. This is a family area and this is a very nice family home that has been well maintained during its lifetime.  CLICK HERE to view a slide show with lots of photos of this home. This property is listed by Preferred Properties, but it is not my listing. It is offered at $899,000. And CLICK HERE to view the Key West Association of Realtors mls data sheet.

If you would like to see this blast from the past, please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to schedule a visit. I am a buyer's agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Coastal Realty, Inc. in Key West, Florida.


UPDATE

This truly was one of my favorites house in Key West. I wrote about it many times because it was such a wonderful example of 1960s American architecture. It was listed for sale by several different agents starting in 2004 when the asking price was $1,699,900; It finally sold in 2021 for $1,080.000. I don't know if I mentioned the reason it took so long to sell. The owners had dozens of trophy animals they killed from around the world. They had rugs, mounted heads, and stuffed animals.They killed many of th animals with bow and arrow. I guess that made it "sport"except the animals were defenseless.

If any actually read the post I hope you pick up on how I deal with aging. I had no ireal appreciation for what happens to you as you age. i thought I did. But i was younger then when I wrote it. Count that up to not knowing what you are talking about. 

True Tales of Key West Real Estate in the Times of Covid 19 No. 16

Sine there isn't much real estate being offered for sale or being sold these days, I decided to look through my old shoebox photos of buildings or events that readers might find of interest. This story really happened several years ago at the Bank of America branch located about fifty feet or so west of my office. 

 The building at 510 Southard Street, Key West has long been a bank building. The black and white photos were taken in the 1960s when the building housed First Federal Savings. I don't know when the ownership or signage of the building changed to Bank of America.  In fact Bank of America vacated that space about three years ago.  It is up for lease now and I am not a part of that.

I took the above photo this afternoon. I added a graphic to show where two ATM machines used to be located. The bank entrance was twenty feet or so to the west where the bikes are located in the photo. The wrought iron gate has been in that location for years. It is a passageway to the paring lot in the rear. The gates has been locked ince the bank vacated the building.

Several years ago I was headed two blocks west to the Bobby Shop to get my haircut. Just as I approached the Bank of America ATM machines I noticed a set of keys was inside the lock to one of the machines  Thinking that was odd even for Key West I went inside the bank and saw there were several people standing in line waiting to transact business. 

I passed everybody and went ot the head of the line. A young male bank teller looked at me with a sneer ready to tell me to go to the rear. But I stopped him before his rebuke and told him the keys to the money machine were ready to be swooped. He threw up his hands and raced for the door. I left and got my haircut. I assume all the money was still in the machine. I wonder if the bank manager ever heard about that day.