Jack Antaramian

Meet Jack Antaramian, a developer who is responsible for some of Southwest Florida's most eye-catching properties. His name draws respect on both Marco Island and Naples Fifth Avenue, where he's left his mark in several luxurious properties. But he's not your average big businessman -- he readily admits to feeling more comfortable in shorts and docksiders than a business suit, and he'd rather talk about the specifications of his buildings than his personal success.

 

His story is part American Dream -- but a larger part is experience gained from years of ground-up work. Originally from Watertown, Mass., he is one of four children, the eldest son of a house painter of Armenian and Italian descent. After high school and a two-year stint in the military, he accepted his first job as a janitor in Boston, claiming a two-bedroom, rent-free apartment as incentive.

He says he got into the building business "purely by accident," using experience in handy work to remodel his parents' house. He then moved up to building single-family homes for friends on speculation and became a full-line developer in the 1970s when he entered into a joint venture with a local bank to build an 80-unit housing project.

Antaramian first took sight of Marco Island during a 1970 snook fishing trip. His story is similar to hundreds of others told by captivated Marco Island residents -- he became enamored by the subtropical sunsets, tranquil fishing under the Judge Jolley Bridge and walking on the crescent-shaped clean beach. "It was just a romance with the area," he recalls.

He was lured to buy a little piece of paradise by the Miami-based Deltona Company, which marketed the island as an affordable yet elegant sun, beach, boating and golfing get-away in the 1960s and 70s. Antaramian bought property, moved into a residence part-time in 1983 and came to stay year-round in 1987.

Ironically, the pristine environment that drew the Deltona Company to Marco Island would become a roadblock to its large-scale residential development plan. By the late 1970s the company became embroiled in a legal battle with environmentalists over permitting rights. By the late 1980s, the company had largely moved off the island. And Antaramian soon moved into the spotlight as the island's next large-scale developer.

Opportunities in Paradise

Antaramian joined forces with Massachusetts-based developer David Nassif, forming The Antaramian and Nassif Companies, or TANC. Nassif works back in the Northeast with projects such as the Burroughs Wharf in Boston, while Antaramian works from the firm's Southwest Florida office with David Nassif Jr.

Antaramian came into the Marco Island development scene with the purchase of a Dockside condominium in 1985, beginning a string of opportune purchases. Today the list of high-profile properties under the TANC trademark umbrella reads like a roadmap to Marco Island's landmarks:

** Antaramian purchased Marco Beach Realty, a leftover from the Deltona days, for the $35-40 million range in the late 1980s. With a strong growth plan and booming numbers of new residents moving to Marco, Marco Beach expanded to commercial sales and rentals, becoming the dominating real estate force on the island. It also acquired fellow real estate companies Harborview Realty and Realty Executives. Antaramian guesstimates the combined company at about $200 million today.

** In 1990, Antaramian acquired a prime 30-acre beachfront lot on the southernmost tip of the island for $24.5 million. The lot has an interesting history -- during the height of the Cold War it was the site of a missile tracking station. It also has a highly-coveted view of both the Gulf of Mexico and the Ten Thousand Islands.

The lot is now the site of the $400 million Cape Marco, a group of seven high-end condominiums, each named after Mexican cities due west on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico. Antaramian says he is estimating a 2004 completion date for the entire project, which will represent 700 condominiums. To date four are completed: Merida, Monterrey, Tampico and the 24-story Cozumel, which recently won the prestigious FAME award for design. Three additional condominiums are planned. Prices begin at $800,000.

** In 1994 Antaramian purchased the off-island Marco Shores development, a former Deltona project, including a golf-course and country club. Antaramian's present plan to completely remodel the country club is contingent on the completion of a project to four-lane State Road 951, the main thoroughfare to both the development and to Marco Island. "We desperately need that," he says of the long-awaited construction project. "This road's been two years overdue."

** Antaramian purchased a site on Factory Bay, building an 80-slip marina and what is now the popular Vito's Italian restaurant, managed by brother, Vahan. TANC later bought a neighboring site, Pier 81, which was once the location of O'Sheas's restaurant, the Rosie Paddlewheel boat and a Key West ferry service. All three are now gone, but Antaramian has plans -- condominiums that will overlook the Marco River. He expects a two-year time frame for the project, which is slated to begin next spring. In 1997, TANC also purchased Marco's busy Cedar Bay Marina, located just off Collier Boulevard. And in 1998 he purchased an adjacent lot, once the site of NationsBank, fronting Collier Boulevard. He hasn't yet said what he plans to do with the lot.

** Antaramian purchased a high-visibility Collier Boulevard marina site at the foot of the Jolley Bridge entranceway to the island. In the shadow of a Deltona-era yacht club that once stood on the site, he built the 13,000 square-foot Marco Island Yacht & Sailing Club. Today the 120-slip marina accommodates boats up to 100 feet, and the yacht club has attracted more than 800 members.

 The Marco Island Yacht & Sailing Club

** Antaramian purchased a well-known Collier Boulevard commercial lot overlooking Marco's scenic Smokehouse Bay. Construction has begun on a 100,000 square-foot project, The Esplanade, which will contain an 80-slip marina, retail shops and offices for Marco Beach Realty. The neo-Mediterranean building will contain covered walkways, plenty of landscaping and guaranteed upscale shops.

As if Antaramian wasn't busy enough on Marco Island, in 1990 he began to "look around" in Naples. In 1995 a TANC subsidary bought the Colony Court Building on Naples' Fifth Avenue, at the time a problem commercial corridor. "We owned property here when it wasn't fashionable to," Antaramian says from his office at Colony Court, now a completely remodeled salmon pink Mediterranean-style stunner that is occupied by retail, professional and residential interests.

When it was remodeled, Colony Court marked a turning point in the Fifth Avenue district -- it was the fi