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Obituary

Ian Irwin: 1950-2006: Downtown St. Petersburg's champion

He developed Alagon in Tampa and Vinoy Place in St. Petersburg.

By CRAIG BASSE and HELEN HUNTLEY
Published January 21, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - An early believer in the future of downtown St. Petersburg, Ian Irwin made investments and took risks before many other developers saw its potential.

"He had the vision to do things and he wasn't afraid to step out and do something just because it was going to be difficult," said Craig McLaughlin, a longtime business partner. "He loved making deals and seeing them happen."

Mr. Irwin, developer of Vinoy Place, an upscale combination of four midrise towers and townhomes in downtown St. Petersburg, and the Alagon on Bayshore in Tampa, died Thursday (Jan. 19, 2006) at St. Anthony's Hospital. He was 55.

Mr. Irwin, who lived in St. Petersburg and St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, died from cancer, his twin, Innes Henry Irwin of St. Petersburg said Friday.

Her husband "had a fantastic mind for numbers," said Jean Getting Irwin. "He didn't even need a phone book. He was always on the cell phone - sometimes he had two cell phones, talking on one and one ringing. It was incredible.

"In multimillion dollar transactions, he would be doing the whole deal in his head," said Mrs. Irwin, who is also the widow of Paul Getting, a Chamber of Commerce leader and Major League Baseball booster who died in 1993 of a brain tumor.

Carlen Maddux, editor of the Maddux Business Report said Mr. Irwin "knew how to put deals together and he knew how to pioneer and make things work in areas where other people were afraid to go."

Mr. Irwin founded several companies, including Irwin Contracting, which built the BayWalk parking garage and did renovations at the Pier downtown. Ian Frederick Irwin received the first eight years of his education in a one-room school in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, a Canadian village of 1,500. His father ran a heating oil business and reared four children on a farm.

An early dream for Mr. Irwin was a professional golf career, but that changed in his second year at Louisiana State University. He decided he wasn't good enough for the tour. So he got serious about accounting because "all the other people on the golf team were in the accounting line." He remained an avid golfer. Among his partners was Mikhail Baryshnikov.

With a few dollars and a loan from his parents, he bought a St. Petersburg apartment complex in 1973 for $560,000. He moved in and spruced it up before leaving for a development job in Texas. When he came back in 1981, he sold it for $2-million.

With his brother, an engineer, Mr. Irwin founded Southeast Capital, now Southeast Companies, which played roles in some of St. Petersburg's most visible downtown redevelopment projects. Among them: the Kress building, which the city once used for offices, and the First Bankers building, a former hotel converted into offices and shops.

Mr. Irwin was a member of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and a fundraiser for the Baryshnikov Foundation Arts Center in New York City.

Other survivors include a son, Ian Neil Irwin of Ozona; three daughters, Lindy Marie, Katherine Anne and Jillian Christine Irwin, all of Plano, Texas; three stepsons: John Paul Getting and Christopher Storrs Wedding, both of St. Petersburg, and Michael Reid Wedding of Gainesville; and his mother, G. Isabel Irwin of Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Friends may call from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday at Anderson-McQueen Funeral & Cremation Centers, 2201 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. A funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 1200 Snell Isle Blvd. NE. A memorial reception will follow.

Information from Times files was used in this report.

[Last modified January 21, 2006, 01:58:08]