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Around the bay

He's gobbling up properties along Pasco's east-west artery

By Times saff
Published January 15, 2007

LAND O'LAKES -- When Jim Himes sold his family home of 35 years, he never met the buyer. The property is prime central Pasco real estate, fronting State Road 54 across from the Oakstead development. All Himes knew was the mystery buyer moved fast and had money. In 10 days, the buyer swooped in to take over the contract from another buyer who had courted Himes, and presented $1.9-million up front for Himes' 4.2 acres.

"Everything was done by e-mail and phone calls," Himes said. "It was very strange. It made me a little nervous. But we got our check."

Turns out the buyer was Kevin Howell, an Odessa developer of retail and office parks, who spent much of 2006 steadily snapping up chunks of commercial property on an 8-mile stretch of SR 54. His signs have become commonplace on that drag, displaying his name or just the telephone number of his firm. Howell has at least six properties between Ballantrae Boulevard and U.S. 41. Including two office parks he developed in Seven Oaks, Howell's holdings along Pasco's busiest east-west artery encompass 507,500 square feet of space on nearly 70 acres of land. Not bad for a year's worth of work. So who is Kevin Howell? Howell, who did not respond to a request for an interview, has some 25 years' worth of development experience in Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando, according to his Web site. He specializes in office parks, where individual lots and buildings are sold to insurance agents, doctors, dentists and real estate offices. Howell counts Westchase Commons Professional Center and the Tampa Telecom Professional Park in his portfolio. Those who have dealt with him remark on his aura of seasoned savvy. "He was pretty straightforward, and he sat with us two or three times," said Bob Thurston of the Oakstead development's homeowners association. "We were concerned about maintaining the (subdivision signs at the Oakstead entrance). ... He was very congenial."

As his nearly $500,000-per-acre offer to Himes suggests, Howell is willing to pay top dollar to secure his interests.

Property brokers say the price is high but not out of this world - or, at least, not out of Pasco's world. A survey of similar properties in the area showed that SR 54 frontage commands the highest value. Comparable rates just a few miles south, on Birdsong Avenue in Lutz, dip to $199,000 per acre. But to the east and west of the Howell purchases, $500,000 per acre wouldn't raise too many eyebrows.

Need furniture to fit your smaller space? 

ST. PETERSBURG -- Little surprises are plentiful at Doma, a new home furnishings store the owner says is more of "a resource." David King sits in a slender yellow chair and pushes on its arms to make it stretch into a long recliner. "It's a Barcalounger," said King, 44, who opened the store two months ago at 2540 22nd Ave. N, "but it's not your dad's Barcalounger." It's not your dad's furniture store, either, with other unexpected items like a bed that opens like a car's hood, a table that rises on legs like an ironing board or a simple footrest that conceals a storage compartment. King said the business is an appeal to the city's changing marketplace of condos and refurbished bungalows. "We have to be space-conscious, but we don't have to sacrifice design," King said. "There are many choices that people didn't know were out there." Doma is more than just a store, King says, but not quite a studio. He can provide much more than the Tema, Star, Calligaris, Carter and other "urban contemporary" pieces his showroom displays.

Frog Pond spilling over into St. Pete Beach

In a move that allows for growth opportunities in more ways than one, the Frog Pond will open a new restaurant this spring in St. Pete Beach. "We have a lot of young people that have been with us for quite some time and they've got to put their stamp on something," said Bill McGavren, one of the owners of the North Redington Beach restaurant famed for its oversized portions of gourmet omelettes and Benedicts. "We've got to give people an opportunity for management. Otherwise they'll go stagnant and we'll lose key people." McGavren said he and co-owners Denis Merkle and David Hitterman are well along with their plans to open the new spot on the southwest corner of Corey Avenue and Gulf Boulevard. The new restaurant will have 70 seats like its 24-year-old sister up north and otherwise be the mirror image of the Frog Pond in Redington Beach Plaza. Managers and staffers will rotate between the restaurants so the new one will show the same quality of product and service that made the original a beach icon, McGavren said.

[Last modified January 15, 2007, 06:04:38]