LEALMAN - Five Towns is not really five towns, but that's the name Herman Geller gave his development in 1970, when he envisioned 6,000-7,000 condominium units, a medical center, a shopping center, a high-rise building and a par-three golf course on his 557 acres.
Today, there are about 3,100 residents - most 55 and older - living in 1,700 condominium units - and the acreage is much less: 144.8, according to Sean Foley, director of community management of Five Towns LLC - the company that owns the property but not the condo buildings.
"Some of what Mr. Geller envisioned never came to fruition," Foley said. The medical center and golf course were never built. Someone else constructed the shopping center, which has several doctor's offices, outside the complex.
The entrance to Five Towns Terrace Park is near the corner of Park Street and 54th Avenue N, in the western portion of the Lealman Fire District. But don't say they live in Lealman. Residents have expressed publicly several times - through their spokesman Larry Schiller, president of the Five Towns Council of Directors - that they like being Five Towns.
Five Towns has 34 condo buildings, each with its own homeowners association, plus an administration building and two clubhouses, the Magnolia Sun Center and the Oleander Lake Center. There are nine ponds, six swimming pools with gazebos, two tennis courts and a shuffleboard court.
Most buildings are named after colleges, such as Georgetown, Cornell, Amherst and Fordham. There are some five- and four-story buildings, some two-story and one-story buildings; some have walkways and some have balconies. They are either one-bedroom, one-bath units or two-bedroom units with up to two bathrooms, that range in size from 610 square feet to 1,803 square feet. Some have views of the ponds or the swimming pools scattered throughout the property.
According to Foley, 800 palm trees line the streets of Five Towns. Spruce trees, pines and flowering bushes also abound. Landscape maintenance is part of the contract Five Towns LLC has with each building, along with maintaining the roads, clubhouses, pools and ponds and general maintenance.
Condo owners pay a monthly maintenance fee to Five Towns LLC for water/sewer, trash pickup and gas, quarterly or annual fees, and/or assessments to their own homeowners association, depending upon the building's needs.
BOUNDARIES: on the north by 62nd Avenue N, 54th Avenue N on the south and Park Street on the west. The eastern borders include parts of 79th Street (excluding the Holy Cross Catholic Church property) and extending to 77th Street north of that.
HISTORY: In 1970, Herman Geller, president of the Gel-Met Development Corp., a subsidiary of Metrocare Enterprises Inc. of New Jersey, bought the 557-acre tract for $2.1-million from an owners group headed by Walter P. Fuller, a pioneer St. Petersburg real estate broker and developer.
Originally, Geller's property included land on the west side of Park Street and north of 62nd Avenue N.
The first eight buildings in Five Towns were completed in 1976. The second phase, named Terrace Park, was completed in 1988.
TRIVIA: The golf course was supposed to be built on the northwest end of the property. Today the land is part of a 400-acre nature preserve owned by Pinellas County that borders the Cross Bayou canal and Joe's Creek. It is home to bald eagles who have been there more than 30 years.
COMMERCIAL: The only commercial properties in Five Towns proper are a doctor's office, a beauty salon and the Five Towns Action Realty. However, those selling their units do not have to use that realty, Realtor Leslie McMurtrey said.
HOUSING: As of Jan. 1, an 840-square-foot, one-bedroom condominium in the 7900 block of 58th Avenue N was assessed for taxes at $35,400 (without the Save-Our-Homes cap) by the Property Appraiser's Office. The assessed value (without the Save-Our-Homes cap) of a 1,735-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit on Terrace Garden Drive N is $87,900.
- Times researcher Mary Mellstrom assisted in this report.[Last modified August 24, 2003, 01:47:21]
