Hitting pay dirt

Lawyer Joel Tew, a "brash, hard-headed kid from Wauchula,'' worked his way to the top at Vanderbilt Law and in the courtroom. Then he honed the art of the real estate deal with an equally aggressive style that has ruffled some feathers.

By MICHAEL SANDLER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 24, 2001

Joel Tew pitched his way into his college record books with wins, losses and complete games.

[Times photo: Scott Keeler] "Your whole reputation is staked on being right more than you are wrong," says Joel Tew, 47, one of Tampa Bay's most aggressive real estate lawyers.

Twenty-five years later, the boy from Wauchula continues collecting statistics. But instead of tossing baseballs, he now slings controversial development deals as one of Tampa Bay's most aggressive real estate lawyers. From his Clearwater office off U.S. 19, the 47-year-old has handled deals that changed the landscapes in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.

While most land-use attorneys employ a delicate stroke at the bargaining table, Tew seemingly favors bare-knuckles negotiations.

Speaking magnanimously from the podium, he often reminds officials of their legal obligations despite objections from citizens. Homeowners have booed him. A Hillsborough County commissioner once said he had the charm of a hedgehog.

Yet he keeps chalking up wins, losses and plenty of clients.

"Your whole reputation is staked on being right more than you are wrong," says Tew. "Because if you are not right more than you are wrong, you are not going to get hired."

Nowhere is that more apparent than in New Tampa, where Tew has represented nearly every recent golf community and office park north of Cross Creek Boulevard.

So many players in this small area have been his clients that two of them -- a former land owner in what is now Heritage Isles and the U.S. Homes developer -- are suing each other.

Anticipating trouble, Tew had both clients sign waivers acknowledging the potential for conflict before the deal. When the suit was filed, he recommended that each find a good trial lawyer and stopped working for both of them.

His legal savvy has helped Tampa annex thousands of acres. But to homeowners, Tew's name has become synonymous with a different type of growth. Each deal he handles draws more people -- the New Tampa area has quintupled in population during the past decade. Drivers must jockey for space on public roads that lag behind his private deals.

"He definitely is an aggressive and zealous representative of his clients," said City Council member Shawn Harrison, who is also a lawyer and lives in Tampa Palms.

"I conduct my legal practice in the same way. I also feel like I have to be aggressive and zealous in representing my constituents. Sometimes his clients' desires and my constituents' desires are going to clash."

Like him or not, most agree that Tew knows the law. A Rhodes Scholar finalist, he finished first in his law school class and even interviewed for a job with U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Along the way, the man who envisioned himself as the next great trial attorney evolved into a sharp businessman.

"I used to make fun of real estate lawyers," said Tew, a father of four who lives in the East Lake section of Pinellas County. "I called them dirt lawyers and asked them how they could sit there behind a desk, shuffle paper and have such a boring practice."

Country boy

Law firms are filled with lawyers who benefited from privileged roots.

Tew made his own way from modest means in Wauchula, a rural town north of the Everglades. At Hardee Senior High, he captained the baseball and football teams, served as president of the National Honor Society and finished as class valedictorian in 1972.

Jim Youmans taught Tew algebra and coached him on the baseball field, where Tew was the team's starting pitcher and shortstop.

As a pitcher at Davidson College, Tew actually lost more games than he won. But he remains among the school's all-time career leaders with 16 wins, 17 losses and 18 complete games from 1973-76.

"If he ever got into a situation where we needed him to get a strikeout, and he didn't get it, he would grit his teeth and bow his neck," Youmans said. "The next guy up after that didn't have a chance."

(One of his children appears to have inherited his competitive nature. Jenni Tew, 20, was a nationally recognized figure skater during the 1990s who trained for the Olympic Games.)

That competitive zeal helped Tew finish first in his class at Davidson College in North Carolina, and at Vanderbilt Law, which he attended on full scholarship.

His success earned him an interview for a clerkship with Rehnquist. But clerkships on the U.S. Supreme Court directly out of law school were rare, even for a scholar like Tew. Rehnquist recommended he clerk for a lower court, then come work for him in a year.

Tew turned down that opportunity, and offers from big firms in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. "I was a really brash, hard-headed kid from Wauchula," he said.

The hedgehog

Tew chose a small firm in Pinellas County. At Johnson Blakely in Clearwater, he earned a $250,000 decision against American Motors Corp. in federal court just two years out of law school. Though the firm represented real estate developers, Tew favored the trial work.

But not long after his 31st birthday, when Tew opened his own legal practice, he realized that litigation, though exciting, did not provide steady income to run a firm. Within two years, he began personally handling real estate contracts.

Tew attracted clients from the Geraci brothers of Lutz to national home builders like U.S. Home Corp. He had litigated his share of lawsuits, many of them over property. He quickly noticed similarities. Commissions and councils were a lot like juries, only he could engage his audience in debate.

He also found advantages.

"The beauty of it is, in a jury trial, you have a judge riding herd on you, telling you what you can and can't do," said Tew.

"The beauty of a zoning hearing is you've got nobody riding herd. If you are a strong enough personality, you can pretty much control the process of what you are doing."

In a gentlemen's arena, Tew's hardball tactics sometimes chafe the opposition.

"He tends to try and tell the local government what they ought to do or he will take them to court," said attorney Tom Reese, who has opposed Tew while representing the Sierra Club. "A lot of times it depends on how willing the local government is to fight."

In addition to a legal mind, Tew has a natural sense for business. In 15 years, he built a general practice firm with 20 lawyers and 60 employees, including Lee Atkinson, Tampa's legendary pitbull prosecutor, who handles the firm's litigation.

Each deal fueled the next. Not long after a New Tampa property known as East Meadows was sold to U.S. Homes, the previous land owners hired Tew to represent them on other New Tampa deals for holding companies S.D.D. Trust and Star Development. Other New Tampa developers followed.

"Joel has a very unique blend of law, business and personality that I haven't seen in anyone else that I have worked with," said Andrew Irick, a former U.S. Home employee who has worked closely with Tew.

Like most attorneys, Tew can be shrewd. But, Irick said, what sets him apart is his direct approach.

"A lot of attorneys like to walk into a meeting and put their hand on their big sword," Irick said. "Joel lays his sword down in the middle of the table and that sets the tone."

East Meadows, now the country club community of Heritage Isles, was initially planned for unincorporated Hillsborough County. When the County Commission objected to the golf course, Tew negotiated with Tampa. Ultimately, the land became part of the city through annexation, as did other developments represented by Tew.

That's when County Commissioner Ed Turanchik, himself a lawyer, said Tew "has about as much charm as a hedgehog."

Tew proudly displays a name tag by the door to his office that reads "Joel Hedgehog." He doesn't apologize for his approach. The purpose of an attorney is to get something approved that may be objectionable, he said, and he doesn't mind ruffling feathers. Otherwise, developers would represent themselves.

"I do not get hired for the easy ones," he said. "What I found out is they tend to only hire me now for the ones that they think are going to be controversial."

Everybody has a vision

With New Tampa's rapid growth, Tew has found himself at the center of controversy.

After East Meadows, he began working for Toll Brothers, another national home builder, on a project called Grand Hampton. Last year Tew persuaded the City Council to approve his client's plan for 1,599 homes and a golf course on 645 acres, despite objections from environmentalists.

The property borders the Cypress Creek Preserve, a watershed that feeds into Hillsborough's drinking water. The Sierra Club sued Tampa for approving the deal. Tew and his associates intervened and filed a motion to dismiss the suit. The case is pending.

Lately, Tew has sparred with the City Council's Harrison over the proliferation of apartments in New Tampa. Harrison led a council effort to vote down a zoning request that would allow Tew's client to build 300 apartments at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and County Line Road. That battle might also end up in court.

"Everyone has a good vision on where we would like the community to go in the future," Harrison said. "Most of the time, Mr. Tew's clients support that vision and I'm happy to support them. (But) because New Tampa is very much a work in progress, you have to be very careful not to overdo one area of development."

Indeed, it's Tew's face residents increasingly see when new developments threaten the overstressed road system.

"I'm the dark prince who is getting all those approvals when the road is already overburdened," Tew acknowledged. "They are entirely correct, the road needs to be improved and the road needs to be improved immediately."

Don't blame the developers, he says. The city, county and state are responsible for road improvements, and Bruce B. Downs, the only north-south route through New Tampa, should be six lanes wide, not four. Tew's clients and other developers have paid millions of dollars in impact fees. He says the city has spent that money on projects outside New Tampa.

"Is it fair to not allow them to proceed because government is lagging behind?" he asked, suggesting that residents thank the developers for forcing the issue. "I actually can make a fairly logical argument that the pressure of the new development is what is going to get the road built, sooner rather than later, and that the money from the new development is going to help get it built. It's not like these new developments aren't paying their fair share."

Mayor Dick Greco's development consultant says that Tew's criticisms are unfair, and that he underestimates the cost of widening Bruce B. Downs. "What Joel is trying to point out, and that's a historical debate in most communities, is whether impact fees ... cover the cost of constructing the roads," said the consultant, Ron Rotella.

"I think you will find that in most communities, they will tell you the impact fees alone will not cover the cost. It funds a portion."

Ultimately, that's not Tew's concern. His job is to give his clients the best possible representation in a process that often feels like high-stakes poker with somebody else's money.

"I think it is probably scary being my client," he said. "I've seen some clients turn a little bit white. I've had several of them come up to me afterwards and say, "I was absolutely convinced you had blown it, you had pushed them way too far, and that we were totally going way down the tubes.' "

That's why they hired the former pitcher. Only instead of facing one batter at a time, Tew faces a panel of five or seven.

"To be able to do that, and be able to do that on your feet, you really don't get time for time-outs," Tew said. "They are eventually going to make a motion and vote."

- Michael Sandler can be reached at (813) 226-3472 or sandler@sptimes.com.

An impact in New Tampa

Tew Barnes and Atkinson has represented real estate deals through Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. Here are his projects (and clients) in New Tampa:

• Heritage Isles (East Meadow Joint Venture, U.S. Home Corp.)
• Grand Hampton (Toll Brothers, Tampa Realty Associates)
• Diez/Kirby/Branch parcels (Tampa Realty Associates)
• Star Connector/Morris Bridge Road parcels (Star Development)
• SDD Parcel/East Meadows (SDD Trust)
• Scala 683 CMU Parcel (Scala 683 Group)
• Live Oak Village (St. Lucie West Development/Bank Atlantic)
• Spicola parcel (U.S. Home Corp.)

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