Kevin Howell
President, Professional Office Developers Inc.
Odessa, FL 33556
Phone (813) 240-9218
Property Types
Office
Markets
Tampa/St Petersburg
Bio
I started my career as a CPA in Miami, Florida, working for one of the big six (now big 4) tax and accounting firms (Price Waterhouse Coopers). My area of specialization was real estate developers and contractors doing auditing and tax work. It was interesting to see how these companies operated. I eventually transferred to Tampa and ultimately started my own practice specializing in these industries. At that time it was easier to tax shelter income through real estate ownership and I did a lot of work in that area with very active developers. (The tax laws have changed a great deal since then. Not necessarily less favorably but certainly very different.) While I practiced as a CPA, I began investing myself in real estate for both the investment potential and the tax shelter. Over the years I have owned and operated office buildings, apartments, condos and rental houses, a mobile home park, retail centers, farms, and vacant land investments. I also have developed most of these types of investments.
I got into development by land ownership. I had some vacant office land that I purchased for a great price, but was unable to sell it as raw land. I decided to build a small office building on it and rent it out. I was then able to rent it out and sell it for a great price almost immediately upon completion, and I made more money on that one transaction than I typically made in a year of practicing accounting and taxes. I bought more land and did it again, and at that point I was ready to be in development full time. For a number of years I focused primarily on development and let other people handle the construction, but when I began to develop the individual office buildings I came to realize that I lost an element of control by not doing construction myself. I learned that if I did the construction, I was better able to manage costs and control timing of the projects. It also improved the marketing efforts on the projects, so I got my contractor license and began to do contracting of my own developments as well. I have done construction on almost every project that I have developed, and since 2000 ,I have done all construction exclusively on projects I developed.
In the operation of rental properties, it became painfully obvious that as properties aged, maintenance increased. This is especially true of air conditioning issues, which are the primary rental maintenance issue in Florida. As a result I felt it would be prudent to go to new properties for my rental portfolio. This, along with the rising popularity of the small individual office properties with both investors and owner occupants, led me to the business of developing office parks that I went into in 2003 and began to specialize in from that point forward. The buildings are easy to rent, maintain, sell and operate, and appeal to both investors and owner occupants as well. While the market was robust for this product, I did very well producing these projects and found it to be a niche.. Below is a partial list of commercial projects that I have developed and / or constructed:
Below is a partial list of commercial projects that I have developed and / or constructed:
North Village Professional Center - Ehrlich Road, Tampa, Florida - a 32,000 SF office complex
Village French Quarter Shopping Center -N. Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, Florida - 27,000 SF strip shopping center on North Dale Mabry Hwy
Greens of Carrollwood Apartments - Ehrlich Road, Tampa, Florida - a luxury apartment and townhouse complex on the Carrollwood Village Golf Course.
Grand Plaza Retail and Office Complex - N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, Florida - a 240,000 SF retail and office complex on North Dale Mabry Hwy in Tampa
Lincoln Garden - Busch Boulevard, Tampa, Florida - a 73,000 SF office complex purchased at auction and redeveloped, located on Busch Blvd, Tampa.
Crown Pointe Professional Center - Linebaugh Avenue, Tampa, Florida- a 41,000 SF office development
Van Dyke Professional Center – Van Dyke Road, Tampa, Florida – a 18,000 SF office development
Sun Lake Professional Center – North Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, Florida – a 73,000 SF office development
Veterans Professional Center – Linebaugh Avenue, Tampa, Florida – a 70,000 SF office complex
Westchase Professional Centers - Westchase, Tampa, Florida – developed four separate office developments in Westchase subdivision, totaling 112,500 SF
Seven Oaks Professional Centers – Wesley Chapel, Florida – developed four separate office developments in the Seven Oaks subdivision, totaling approximately 300,000 SF
Tampa Telecom Professional Park – developed an office site for approximately 70,000 SF of office space
State Road 54 Corridor, Land of Lakes, Fl – developed three separate office projects along this southern Pasco County corridor, totaling approximately 200,000 SF of office space
Foundation Park - Sarasota , Fl - a 27,000 SF office development currently under construction
North Village Professional Park- Lutz , Fl - a 25,000 SF offi
