Steve Walsh was knee-deep in construction projects across Central Florida, including one that he hoped would reshape Maitland's downtown, before his shocking death June 25. Winter Park police say the developer, who worked for Broad Street Partners, shot himself in the chest at his home. He was 61.

 

Walsh may be most familiar to Maitland residents as the developer of The Residences at Ravinia, previously called Uptown Maitland West, an upscale mixed-use development slated to have 300 luxury condos and 45,000 square feet of retail space.

 

Broad Street's plans for Ravinia were already unclear before Walsh's death. 

 

"Over the last few months it's been on again off again," Maitland Mayor Doug Kinson said. "Now its current status is in question."

 

Kinson said the project is held up because Broad Street Partners can't find financing for the condo piece, something that's not unusual in today's market. But Broad Street is also considering building the project a floor shorter than planned.

 

The current plan is for a five- and six-floor structure. It had started out with seven floors when it was approved in 2004, but was shaved down after citizen outcry. Now it may come back without even a sixth floor.

 

The project was controversial from the start because it is projected to border a residential community, Kinson said. "It had to come with a hard metal wall right in their backyard."

 

Residents filed a lawsuit against the project and voiced their opposition through billboards. Walsh donated $1 million to Maitland-area schools, but when that didn't make amends, he fought back with his own lawsuit to try to get the project to move forward, Kinson said.

 

When Kinson was elected mayor, he said he sat down with Walsh and urged him to drop the lawsuit, and Walsh did in 2006.

 

"He had a passion and concern for doing the right thing for the community yet he was a businessman who was not afraid to do what it took," Kinson said.

 

Verl Emrick, executive director of the Maitland Community Redevelopment Agency, said he expects Broad Street Partners to submit the revisions soon so the project can move forward with permitting late 2008 or early 2009.

 

Walsh, a native of North Carolina, was involved in real estate development for more than 30 years. While most of his projects have been residential, he has done a handful of office properties, including a 32-story building in downtown Charlotte.

 

Not all of Walsh's Central Florida projects have gotten off the ground though — something Winter Park residents can attest to. In 2007, Walsh and his partners in The Carlisle project sued Winter Park for not approving the mixed-use redevelopment of the current U.S. Post Office site adjacent to Central Park. 

 

The developers spent $6 million on the failed project. Four months after the suit was filed, the City Commission approved a settlement that paid the developers $3.7 million to essentially walk away from the project. Walsh and his partners accepted. "This settlement puts a very contentious issue behind both the city and us," Walsh stated in a city press release.

 

A year later, just two weeks before his death, Broad Street Partners announced it will begin construction on Skye, a 332-unit apartment community in the Orlando tourism district, in July.

 

Walsh's company is also tied to the future of another city's downtown — Oviedo's. A 50-acre development, Oviedo on the Park, is slated to feature more than 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, as well as rental and condo units for about 2,500 people. The site is mostly dirt right now, as is the site for Maitland's Ravinia.

 

Now, more than ever, city officials are holding their breath.

 

"There's a lot that has happened since that project was approved," Kinson said. "A lot of time has gone by."