King of the Orphans Closing on Two More Downtown Assets

Kuhn is buying the 60-year-old Downtown Post Office from the federal government in an unusual deal. The government will continue to own 15,000-sf in the Robinson Street building while the developer guts most the structure for a $7.5 million office condo facility.

Kuhn is paying $2.02 million or $30.68 per sf for the 66,000-sf post office building. He is also paying $1.15 million or $53.57 per sf for the 45-year-old Gibbs-Louis Inc. Building at 131 N. Orange Ave. Both acquisitions come to $3.17 million or $33.72 per sf for the total 94,000 sf, far below replacement cost of comparable structures, construction industry estimators tell GlobeSt.com.

"I don't buy real estate to break even," Kuhn tells GlobeSt.com. "I buy properties to show a net profit--every time."

Kuhn has invested about $12 million of his own money on 300,000 sf of assets Downtown since 1994. All of his acquisitions have been abandoned, forgotten or overlooked properties that other developers have shunned because of perceived steep redevelopment costs, Kuhn says. "We tackle the rejects," he tells GlobeSt.com. "And if the numbers are right, we've scored again."

He plans to demolish the Gibbs-Louis structure and erect a $7 million, seven-story office building on the site. The developer is also looking at a tight two-acre site Downtown on Garland Avenue between Jefferson and Washington Streets. First Union Bank, currently occupying 50,000 sf in two Downtown buildings, is the rumored anchor for that speculated office tower development. Kuhn declines comment on the speculation.