Ira Koger Jr. served on the boards of dozens of educational and art institutions, including the Ringling Museum of Art.
By Associated Press
Published June 1, 2004
ATLANTIC BEACH - Ira McKissick Koger Jr., a real estate developer who helped pioneer the office park concept and became a leading contributor to the arts community, has died. He was 91.
Mr. Koger died Saturday (May 29, 2004) after suffering complications from a staph infection, his daughter, Pamela K. Moore, said Sunday. She said her father had broken his hip in December 2003 and was recovering from the injury.
"He was always helpful of any good cause, regardless of the issue," said former Jacksonville Mayor Louis Ritter. "Anything to make a person's life better - he always had that hand out to reach out to people."
Mr. Koger began building suburban office parks in 1957, serving as chairman and chief executive of Koger Properties. The company produced more than 325 office buildings in 36 office parks in 23 cities throughout the Southeast and Southwest and yielded about $150-million in annual rent.
A Koger Center built in St. Petersburg beginning in 1971 has 15 buildings on the site on N 94th Avenue between N 4th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that offer 668,144 square feet of office space. Another park, built south of Kennedy Boulevard on Tampa Bay between 1965 and 1973, also has 15 buildings. That park was sold to another investor, and parts of it were recently put on the market.
In 1988 Mr. Koger established Koger Equity Inc., a holding company that survived the troubled real estate market during the 1990s and has operational headquarters in Boca Raton.
Koger Properties collapsed under a heavy debt load and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1991. It was merged into its sister company, Koger Equity, in 1993.
A federal grand jury indicted Mr. Koger in June 1995 on seven counts of tax evasion, claiming he owed $2.5-million in taxes. But a federal judge ruled that Mr. Koger's affliction with sleep apnea made him unable to stand trial and granted a motion for an abatement of the trial, suspending the case.
Mr. Koger maintained his innocence, blaming his tax problems on his accountant.
Mr. Koger, a native of Charleston, S.C., worked in the textile mills as an 11-year-old boy and was elected to the Legislature as a 21-year-old student. He later wrote the state's first workers compensation law.
He served on the boards of dozens of charitable educational and art institutions, including the Lincoln Center Chairman's Council in New York, the Kennedy Center Advisory Board in Washington, D.C., National Public Broadcasting, Sarasota's John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and as chairman of the American Symphony Orchestra League.
He endowed the University of North Florida's Department of American Music/Jazz and was founder and chairman of the St. John's River City Band. He served on the board of WJCT-TV in Jacksonville for 30 years, including 17 years as its chairman.
Mr. Koger was a graduate of the College of Charleston, attended law school at the University of South Carolina and held honorary degrees from Rollins College, the University of North Florida and the University of South Carolina. He served in World War II as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
Mr. Koger was survived by his wife of 67 years, Nancy Jane Tedder Koger; his daughter, Pamela Koger Moore, and her husband, William J. Moore Jr.; his brother, Robert Koger of Charleston, S.C.; five grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
A funeral is planned for Wednesday at Riverside Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville.
