DAYTONA BEACH — When Chris Noe talks about the historic two-story coquina house that has been his home off Beach Street for seven years, it’s with the tender emotion that one might associate with a close family member.
“I feel like 20 years ago I fell in love with it then,” said Noe, 58, who recalls first spotting the house on a long-ago visit to Bike Week from his home state of Connecticut. “It’s a special place for me — and now they want to take it away from me.”
“They” would be insurance giant Brown & Brown, on a real estate buying spree of properties adjacent to the site of the company’s future headquarters on North Beach Street. The planned $30 million 10-story headquarters campus, expected begin construction later this year, is anticipated by area leaders to be a catalyst for redevelopment of the downtown area. According to Noe, a carpenter and home builder by trade, the coquina house at 328 Wisconsin Place is the only property on his block that hasn’t been sold.
And he’s driving a hard bargain.
“If I was greedy, I would have just taken the money, but I want to save that house,” said Noe, adding that offers from realtors working for Brown & Brown started at $150,000 in December and have since increased to $375,000. “I don’t want to see it razed.”
Instead, Noe plans to disassemble the house, built in 1925, and transport it to a vacant lot roughly six blocks away, at 274 Lexington Drive, not far from the riverfront eatery Caribbean Jack’s. Volusia County Property Appraiser records show that Noe bought the house for $55,000 in February 2011. It’s current just value for tax purposes is $64,725, according to the Property Appraiser’s office.
“That’s the closest lot I could find,” said Noe, in a phone interview from Nashville, Tennessee, where he is in the midst of renovating a client's home. “I’ve given them an option.”
To move the house, with its 15-inch thick walls and stone chimney, will cost $508,000, according to calculations by Noe that he said include a minimum 10 percent contingency for unexpected problems.
“That’s where it comes in and, believe me, that’s with a very sharp pencil,” said Noe, adding that the estimate includes the price of the new lot ($200,000) and cost of taking apart the house and preparing it for the move ($125,000) and putting it back together on the new site ($140,000) as well as required permits and fees. Noe said he has been in contact with two moving companies willing to take on the job, though he declined to name them.
"One mover said he could put the house on a barge," Noe said. "On a barge it can go anywhere."
Mark Casel, an area real estate broker that Noe said had been a contact in the negotiations, didn’t respond to several phone messages. David Lotz, chief corporate counsel for Brown & Brown, offered only a brief reaction to Noe’s story.
“We don’t have any contractual relationship with Mr. Noe; that’s about all I’d have to say in that regard,” Lotz said. “We had discussed whether he’s interested in selling. He had a view of what his property was worth and it was inconsistent with what we thought. We’re not involved in any sort of transaction with him.”
Two neighboring roughly one-acre commercial properties on North Beach Street were recently sold, just north of Brown & Brown’s future headquarters campus.
Carl Morrow and his wife Diane, owners of Carl’s Speed Shop, recently sold their property to Canadian investors who currently own the downtown Cobb Cole Center office building on Ridgewood Avenue.
The buyers agreed to pay $885,000 for the property a few weeks ago after the Morrows turned down a “low ball” offer from Brown & Brown, Carl Morrow told The News-Journal in March.
The new owners have not yet decided what they will do with the property, but have agreed to let the Morrows and their son Doug continue to operate Carl’s Speed Shop for a few more months.
Also recently changing hands is the commercial property immediately north of Carl’s Speed Shop, which was sold a few weeks ago by Ameris Bank to Brown & Brown for $850,000, according to Buddy Budiansky, a commercial real estate agent with Realty Pros Commercial, who with colleague Ron Frederick represented the seller in the deal.
Brown & Brown purchased the property under the name DTBB LLC. The property includes a motorcycle shop called Brigit’s Customworks, which has been at that location since 2014, as well as three empty storefronts.
Budiansky said last month that more property sales in the area are coming, including the residential area just north of downtown, where there are currently a number of rundown houses.
Noe doesn’t consider his historic home to be among them.
“With the big windows on the second floor, there’s always a breeze coming off the river,” he said. “There’s a big oak tree in the backyard that shades the house from the afternoon sun. Because of the thermal mass of the stone walls, it doesn’t get hot inside during the day or cold at night.
“They are offering me money I don’t need,” Noe said. “I have peace and I don’t want to destroy it with the upheaval of moving to a new house. I just want them to be responsible. I want them to save the house and pay to move it. Or I’m not leaving.”