Showing posts with label SOFLA developers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SOFLA developers. Show all posts

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Developers Haft-Gaines in 1970s Fort Lauderdale: Bay Colony, Imperial Point, Inverrary and ...

 


By Jane Feehan

New condominium and rental projects overtaking the Fort Lauderdale landscape like a bad dream calls for a look back to the 1970s. That decade witnessed a tremendous growth surge.

Haft-Gaines, led by University of North Carolina classmates Burt Haft and Jack Gaines were at the helm of several high-profile developments in Fort Lauderdale and later in Palm Beach County. According to news accounts they ventured to Fort Lauderdale after reading a Kiplinger Letter about Florida’s opportunities.

Gaines said in a 1970 interview that they started building houses in Pompano and Boca Raton. They soon turned their attention to Fort Lauderdale where they developed Imperial Pointe, The Landings and Bay Colony. 

If you think things are crazy now, note they charged an admission fee just to see models of Bay Colony, touted then as the most expensive sub-division in the U.S. with prices of $200,000 to $600,000. (News accounts indicated deposed President of Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza, was interested in a property at 100 Bay Colony Lane).

Gaines had California on his mind. Not for developments but for inspiration. He wanted to bring California to Florida. He brought Richard Leitch and Associates of Newport, California to work magic on 1,000 acres off West Oakland Park Boulevard. Waterfalls, lakes, small, sculpted hills served as the backdrop of this new community of apartments, condos and houses. 

This showstopper was Inverrary, a $500 million development opened in 1970. It was also the site of 21 tennis courts, three golf courses and a 14-room townhouse for Jackie Gleason overlooking a lake. ( https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/07/of-russians-splitnick-inverrary-jackie.html). They reached $1 million in sales within days of launching the development. Haft-Gaines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fuqua Industries by 1970, moved their office from Imperial Point to Inverrary. That's where the action and headlines reigned.

The community generated headlines for years about real estate, golf tournaments and more.

One of those headlines was a White House ceremony in 1973 where First Lady Pat Nixon gave the Haft-Gaines company the “first-place-in-nation” award among private firms for beautification efforts along a highway; that was for Inverarry, where waterfalls mark its entrance and lakes dot its landscape. Company Comptroller Chuck Tilbrook accepted the award on behalf of Haft-Gaines.

The company later developed Frenchmen’s Creek, an exclusive community in Palm Beach Gardens. Jack Gaines died in 2004 at Juno Beach; Burt Haft died in 2020 in Aventura. They set the standards for Florida developments and understood the dynamic of real estate where “creating an emotionality” played a key role in buying a house.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 10, 1970
Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 31, 1970
Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 10, 1970
Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 20, 1971
Fort Lauderdale News, May 5, 1973
www.greensboro.com
Legacy.com

Tags: Fort Lauderdale developers, Inverrary, The Landings, Haft-Gaines, Bay Colony, Fort Lauderdale history