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George Rahdert

"My Law Practice and

My Clients Come First"

(Originally published in Pinellas County Review, September 1994)

 

By Bob Andelman

Bay Plaza may be St. Petersburg's designated master developer, but what has the company developed in seven years other than a parking garage with 200,000 vacant square feet?

Maybe the crown of "master developer" should shift a few blocks west to the law offices of Rahdert & Anderson and the head of George Rahdert.

During the same period of time Bay Plaza has been spinning its wheels, Rahdert, 44, has managed a successful practice and instilled style and new life into once crumbling historic structures across the central business district, including the Stewart Building, Mansion By the Bay, the Alexander Building and the Bay Gables Tea Room and Bed & Breakfast. In the second half of 1994 he's taken on two huge new projects, renovating the old Rutland Department Store and reopening the shuttered State Theater, both on Central Avenue.

But guess which developer, Bay Plaza or Rahdert, gets the bigger run-around at City Hall?

"The small entrepreneur meets with incredible resistance," Rahdert complains. "The sad fact of restoring real estate in downtown St. Petersburg is you always run into a brick wall. I do think things are seriously skewed when the city turns over everything to Bay Plaza and trusts them and honors their timetable. They're giving the city away to the big guy and withering the little guy. It should be the other way around. You need the small entrepreneurs to take risks and add charm to the city. The city does not understand and does not honor the free market."

Maybe it's not a fair comparison. Because while Bay Plaza spent millions of taxpayer dollars developing the South Core parking garage, Plaza Parkway and, until recently, was paid by its development partner the city to manage The Pier, ThunderDome and Bayfront Center, Rahdert had the cheekiness to take the city to court over disabled access to the Dome. And as counsel for the St. Petersburg Times, Rahdert & Anderson is always in the city's face over public documents and public meetings. The most infamous example was the city's attempt to conduct business with the Chicago White Sox many years ago outside the sunshine.

"I've been told the city has a special place in its heart for me because I forced it to deal with handicapped access at the ThunderDome," Rahdert says. "If I'm getting a payback, fine. My law practice and my clients come first. I've never had a moment's regret standing up for the disabled in St. Pete. If that's the effect, so be it."

Why Rahdert keeps redeveloping property in downtown is a mystery. In fact, after the Bay Gables Tea Room finally opened in 1992 after months of battles with city inspectors, he swore that was the last he'd tangle with the city over real estate.

What changed his mind?

"Obviously, I'm a sick person," he says, grinning. "A masochist. I've stepped back in for my fair share of abuse. I should have stuck to my guns. But I sort of like to save things."

Driving him crazy are inspectors who give him a list of things that need correcting then, when those items are satisfied, come back with a second or third list. "They have contradicting codes," Rahdert says. "The fire code is in contravention with the building code. When a building changes use, they hold it to the standard for modern codes and construction. It's impractical to demand an old building meet modern codes and setbacks. There is a set of rules and regulations in the construction code that describes a city different than what we have."

ADD: "He may be generalizing too much," answers Rick Mussett, Community Development Administrator for the city. "There's probably a certain element of truth to that, (but) it's not the same problem it may have been two years ago. I think, by and large, the city's fire and building officials try to bend over backward and be accommodating. We want to help the small entrepreneur the same way we helped the Vinoy be redeveloped."

One of Rahdert's projects, the Bay Gables Tea Room, was supposed to open as a bed & breakfast. Instead, it served high tea with no rooms for rent.

"The tea room was so successful, it took over the building," Rahdert says. "The city gave us hell because they couldn't find a bedroom. Well, the market dictated we go in a different direction."

Donna Gilbert owns the Tea Room business. With Rahdert's help, she'll soon operate a B&B, too. Rahdert bought the properties behind Bay Gables, razing the cottage immediately behind the tea room and rehabilitating an old flophouse beyond that which will offer eight guest rooms (including honeymoon suite) by year's end. Rooms will go for $75-$135 a night.

"George is my landlord, but he wears a couple different hats," Gilbert says. "He lent me money to renovate the (B&B) building. And he gave me a lease-option to buy the buildings. He's willing to give people a chance that maybe have not had a chance to prove themselves.

"The man has a lot of enthusiasm for this city, which not a lot of people do," she says. "He has a lot of vision. If the city were more supportive of him, I think he'd do a lot more. He needs to be encouraged, not discouraged."

Rahdert's biggest challenge to date will no doubt be cleaning up the shuttered Rutland Department Store at Central Avenue and 5th Street N. He hopes to restore the original exterior and lease first floor space inside to a variety of small retailers. "There's virtually no retail space available in the city now," Rahdert says, referring to Bay Plaza's demolition of the First By First strip and other nearby storefronts. "Good for me." A large area on the west side of the building will serve as a coffeehouse/restaurant. Upstairs, his preference is a funky working space and galleries for local artists, but economics may dictate office space. Grand opening is tentatively set for June 1994.

Reopening the State Theater by December may be a little easier than the usual Rahdert project. The previous owners already rehabbed it, but lacked deep enough pockets to keep it open. He also intends to increase the food & beverage operation.

When he restores a property, Rahdert does so with a particular type of business in mind. He'll often be an investor in the business's start-up, but he prefers to bring in experienced operators.

"I often have a hand in guiding the business, but I don't have the time, capacity or knowledge to run these businesses," he says.

He played a role in the catering business of Mansion By the Bay until selling it to the operator in 1993. And when the Alexander Building opened, he was a partner in the original ground-floor cafe, The Alexis. Now he's merely landlord for the current tenant, Saffron's, and the many sole practitioners who share space with Rahdert & Anderson in the Alexander (including access to the Zen-Buddha Conference Room and the Mint-Julep Patio for Friday beer bashes).

"I grew up on a farm in Bowling Green, Ohio," Rahdert says. "I like the tangible aspects of real estate. In law, the results are not necessarily tangible. In real estate, the results are something you can tackle. I'm also a capitalist."

His career as a real estate mogul aside, it's important to remember George Rahdert is, first and foremost, a prominent St. Petersburg attorney, best-known for representing the Times.

And as the name on the shingle indicates, this is not a one-lawyer practice. Pat Anderson is not only his partner in the firm in name, she also his participates in real estate ventures such as the Alexander Building and the Rutland Department Store. They both represent the Times.

"The relationship between the newspaper and George and his firm is essential to us," says Executive Editor Paul Tash. "I can't imagine that a week goes by without contact between me or one of my colleagues and that firm. They've been very effective."

The newspaper represents fully one-third of the firm's business.

"We took a lead position in the (attempted) Bass takeover and then the (attempted) Yale takeover," Rahdert recalls. "We also resist subpoenas to protect reporters' sources, fight our way into public records, and fight libel lawsuits. The editors don't make a lot of mistakes. If they get sued where they haven't made a mistake, we'll represent them assiduously."

Other Times vs. the world situations have included featured bouts against former Pasco County Sheriff John Short (a series about corruption in Short's office won the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize), the Tampa Tribune (about the recently dropped lawsuit over the name The Times and the Trib's old Tampa Times, Rahdert says, "Our victory in the first round was to declare we did not want to be confused on any level with the Tampa Tribune") and The Times of London ("We're still looking for someone who went out to buy The Times of London and wound up with The Times of St. Petersburg, instead").

Daily deadlines and the vast opportunity for something to go wrong at any time of the day or night keeps the Times' counselors on their toes. "You have to be ready to respond immediately," Rahdert says. "You don't have the luxury of time."

Rahdert, who is listed in Best Lawyers in America, has clients other than the Times, of course, some in the media (Home Shopping Network, The Miami Herald), some not (the Lutheran Church of Florida, Tape and Label Engineering, Plant City Steel). Specializations include first amendment and church law, as well as civil and disabled rights.

Disabled-rights activist George Locascio was Rahdert's client when the lawyer challenged the city of St. Petersburg on ThunderDome accessibility. It wasn't a chance partnership; Locascio remembered Rahdert as a pre-law college intern at the Times when Locascio was assistant manager of the commercial services department. But when Locascio engaged Rahdert the attorney, Rahdert had to come to him; his old offices in the Stewart Building weren't equipped for wheelchair access, either.

In 1989, Rahdert represented Jacksonville's Florida Star newspaper on a civil invasion of privacy suit before the Supreme Court. The newspaper accidentally named a rape victim in a story in violation of state law. "There was a Florida statute which made it illegal to print or broadcast the name of a rape victim," he says. "We argued that truth and information of a public concern should never be censored by statute. We won in the Supreme Court. We saved the newspaper.

"That's my story," Rahdert says, "and I'm sticking to it."

BAY LAWYER FILE

Name: George K. Rahdert

Title: Partner, Rahdert & Anderson

Birthplace/date: August 3, 1950

Marital Status: Divorced

Children: Jake and Luke, 8 (twins); Karl, 9

Pre-Law: "I grew up in rural Ohio where my father managed a farming operation and I worked as a college professor. My mother was a high school teacher. I attended Duke University and Yale Law School."

First Law Job: Clerked for the Honorable Paul H. Roney, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Subsequent Career: Worked for two years at Shackleford, Farrior, Stallings & Evans in Tampa; formed Rahdert & Anderson with Patricia Anderson.

Biggest Victory: "My biggest victory was winning Nassau County School Board v. Arline in the United States Supreme Court. This case expanded the civil rights laws applied to people with disabilities, including those afflicted with AIDS."

Biggest Disappointment: "A retrenchment in open government laws by the Florida Supreme Court."

Lawyers Most Admired: "I consider Sandy D'Alemberte, currently president of Florida State University, to be my mentor in the law. I deeply respect his intellect and breadths of interest. I could not have had a better initial experience than working for Judge Paul Roney, who is a brilliantly analytical and highly principled person. I admire Harry Blackmun's independence of thought, and I particularly respect the work of Justices Brennan, Marshall and Stewart."

Favorite Law-related Book: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson


end

 

©2000, All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced without the express written permission of the author.


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