BUSINESS WEEKLY

From building to brokering

Fred Starling's development career has been built on rock-solid relationships and respect

By KEVIN MCQUAID

kevin.mcquaid@heraldtribune.com

SARASOTA -- Fred Starling's real estate business was just scratching by in the early 1980s.

Despite being one of the few truly diverse realty companies in Southwest Florida, Fred M. Starling Inc. fought to cover its expenses.

Offering both general contracting and brokerage services under one roof just wasn't enough to ensure success, it seemed.

Neither was Starling's reputation as an honest, smart businessman, or his desire to expand into the fast-growing development side of the business.

"At the time, we were just making ends meet," said Starling, 52. "We didn't have the money to do anything."

Ian Black, Starling's former vice president of marketing, recalls those days just as starkly.

"He had to struggle to make payroll early on," said Black, who now owns his own Sarasota brokerage firm.

But just as darkness threatened to close in, Starling was introduced to a Miami landowner by then-employee Richard Fischer.

Meeting Ed Ansin, whose family trust owned thousands of acres across Florida at the time, would be a fortuitous encounter that would turn Starling's professional life around.

Ansin, whose father had bought roughly 140 acres in the mid-1950s at what became the Interstate 75 and Bee Ridge Road interchange, proposed a deal.

If Starling would manage Ansin's acreage in Sarasota County, the landlord would give him the right of first refusal to buy pieces of the property.

Fourteen years later, Starling developed the first phase of the Cattleridge Business Park on Ansin's former property, which includes the Sarasota Alehouse, the Hampton Inn hotel, a gas station and an Arby's restaurant and a SunTrust Bank branch.

Subsequent phases have resulted in several buildings along Cattlemen Road, occupied by Sarasota County, the Internal Revenue Service, Flagship Bank and Unisource Administrators.

"It's been a very good relationship for us," Starling said of the Ansin connection. "They've lived up to everything they ever said they would do."

Twenty years have passed since their handshake deal, but Ansin has never wavered in support of Starling.

"He's really an exceptional person," said Ansin, chief executive officer of Sunbeam Television Corp., whose personal net worth tops $1 billion. "He's extremely reliable and very thorough and trustworthy. Fred has all the qualities that you want for that line of work."

Though Starling didn't know it in 1983, the Ansin bond would also spark the developer's largest -- and perhaps most lucrative -- project to date.

From farmer to real estate

Fred Starling grew up in Lakeland, the fourth generation in a line of farmers.

Staying close to the family business, he majored in agriculture at the University of Florida. But upon graduation, his minor in engineering won out -- slightly.

Fresh out of school, Starling took a job building citrus processing plants, which led to a stint as a superintendent with juice giant Tropicana.

Before long, though, Starling felt the tug of the real estate industry, and signed on as a project manager with Dooley & Mack Constructors.

It didn't take him long to realize his true ambition was development.

"I knew I wanted, early on, to be involved from the dirt up," Starling said.

To that end, he studied for, and obtained, both his real estate broker's license and a general contractor's license.

"In those days, most people were either on the construction side or in the real estate business," Starling said. "To me, it made sense of you could build it and then lease it or sell it. It was just another arm of the company I knew I eventually wanted to build.

"The idea was to be involved in all aspects of the business," Starling said.

The concept has gained Starling respect and admiration -- and not just from Ansin.

When insurer FCCI decided to vacate its headquarters in the 50-acre Live Oak Business Park and sell the five-story building there for a move to Lakewood Ranch, the new owner naturally turned to Starling.

Mike Biber had a successful law practice in Troy, Mich., representing wealthy Detroit families and providing investment counseling. He also maintained a winter home in Sarasota.

Like Ansin before him, Biber recognized in Starling and his team of employees the qualities that could be beneficial to both: Biber had the resources, Starling the local knowledge and the business ken.

Starling, in turn, credits the 20 Starling Group employees who jell to make the acquisition, development, management and leasing process go smoothly.

In 2000, they formed Osprey Management Co., after a Biber-led partnership bought the 13-story Sarasota City Center tower downtown.

As with Ansin, Starling agreed to manage Osprey properties in exchange for a fee or a cut of the ownership.

Today, a portion of the 2 million square feet in Osprey's portfolio is owned just by Biber's clients; some properties are jointly owned; and some are owned exclusively by Starling, making him among the largest developers in Southwest Florida.

Osprey has recently expanded into Tampa and St. Petersburg, with a goal of growing ever larger through acquisitions possible in Charlotte, Houston and other Sun Belt cities, Starling said.

Another Ansin deal

Even as the Osprey relationship was heating up, Starling found himself again enmeshed in a deal with Ansin, one that would prove to be both incredibly ambitious and arduous.

Developer U.S. Assets Group had eyed the 700-acre Ansin trust tract off Fruitville Road east of Interstate 75 as the site of the luxury golf course and residential community.

Ansin sent them to Starling, and the two firms teamed up.

But the $500 million Founders Club became mired in Sarasota County's 2050 growth debate. So much so that the property's rezoning chugged along for nearly five years before county planners rejected the plans.

"We weren't prepared to give up, because we knew we had a great piece of property," Starling said.

After concessions to 2050-style open space requirements and meetings with county leaders to discuss the project's caliber, commissioners unanimously approved plans for the Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed golf course and 262 homesites.

The course opened in January, its clubhouse on Oct. 1. Some 60 luxury homes are now under construction or nearing completion.

"He's diligent, hard working and extremely honest," said Tom Brown, a U.S. Assets partner. "And Fred knows the building business well, which was a real asset. And since Founders, we've become friends as well as business partners."

Despite Starling's development interests, he's not abandoned the construction business.

Rick Rossiter, who owns a pair of Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealerships, became a Starling client when work began a few years back on Rossiter's Harley-Davidson on Cattlemen Road.

"The best testimonial you can give a builder is to have them construct a second building -- because most people don't," Rossiter said.

When Rossiter decided to open Manatee River Harley-Davidson, at State Road 64 and Interstate 75, he chose Starling -- without even considering other contractors.

'The Big Picture'

Neither Starling nor those who've worked with him expect the Starling group to abandon the focus, or the diversity, that's resulted in success.

"He had the tenacity to stick with his vision even when times were tough," Black said of Starling. "He saw the big picture and went with it. Fred was patient, and he persevered."

Although acquiring land has become "challenging," Starling plans to continue to concentrate on suburban development, and redevelopment of older properties.

Starling also intends to continue to beef up Osprey Management. To that end, Osprey Landscaping was created three years ago.

"People tell me how lucky I am," Starling said. "I tell them I've worked hard at being lucky. I expect Southwest Florida to be a dynamic market for years to come, and we plan to be here and be a part of it."