The reason: The property is in the city's Downtown Historic District, protected from demolition and radical exterior changes. At least one building goes back to 1886.

Kling couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline for comment on what he plans to do with the asset. It's the most frequently-asked question Downtown and the city's biggest secret to date.

But brokers who have worked with Kling's investor group, F.F. South & Co., tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity the investor isn't too concerned over not being able to demolish or change the outside look of the properties because he is considering uses other than entertainment for the asset.

"Everybody thinks he bought the property to continue trying to make a go of it as an entertainment district," a real estate lawyer familiar with the transaction tells GlobeSt.com. "That may turn out to be at the bottom of his priority list."

If it is, it would be a shocker for Downtown supporters and the city who have been pushing hard in the past five years to rejuvenate and realign businesses in the central business district.

A crush of 2,000 new apartments is surfacing Downtown. At least three new hotels will be operating by year end or the first quarter 2003. A core entertainment district, such as the 27-year-old Church Street Station, would be a plus to Downtown's own makeover plans, observers point out.

"It would have to have an entirely new thrust and appeal, something that Disney, Universal and Sea World can't offer the tourists," says Dean Fritchen, a senior broker at Arvida Realty Services Commercial Division in suburban Winter Park, FL.

Although there are city prohibitions against altering the exterior appearance of the buildings, Kling and his group could gut the interior of the structures and create a whole new look inside, confirms Tom Kohler, executive director of the Downtown Development Board.

Such a move could usher in a combination of apartments, hotels, restaurants and coffee shops without needing an exterior facelift, point out area interior designers.

"At $60 per sf, he is buying property that probably will be going for $100 per sf shortly," a veteran land broker not associated with the Church Street Station deal tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

"If he can sew up the financing to close his purchase and get a cash stream going from any viable business there, he will be able to flip the whole thing in a few years and still come out ahead."

That's precisely what Orlando investor Joseph Lewis and his associates at British-based Enic PLC did when they sold Church Street Station to F.F. South, Kling's Orlando firm with Washington, DC connections. Enic bought the property in 1999 from a Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. subsidiary for $11.5 million or about $57.50 per sf.

Baltimore Gas wasn't that lucky, however. The firm wrote off the property after paying $61 million or $305 per sf to local entrepreneur Bob Snow in 1988.

Fleet Bank of Boston is funding F.F. South's purchase. Maury L. Carter & Associates Inc. of Orlando is Kling's partner in the deal.