Fixer-Upper Prince Buys 10th Ugly Duckling Property

ORLANDO-Developer Cameron Kuhn, a transplanted, 43-year-Chicagoan, is investing $4.47 million or $56.58 per sf to buy the 18-year-old, 79,000 sf 100 East Pine Building, vacant since summer 1997 when Orange County shut down its own structure because of air quality problems.

The county and its insurer have paid out more than $1 million in medical claims from county workers.

The acquisition is Kuhn’s 10 Downtown asset since he began his hunt for distressed assets in 1994. All of his properties have been rehabbed and are 100% leased.

The East Pine Building has been on the market for the past three years. Potential buyers shunned the property because of its air quality stigma and the estimated cost of $1 million it would take to renovate the premises and re-market it as a prime Downtown office location.

Kuhn’s renovation of the building has already begun.

“This is old hat to us now,” Kuhn tells Globest.com. “This what we do best. I buy properties no one else wants. Why? I like the challenge.” And the payoff.

Kuhn’s debt load is manageable because he never borrows more than 50 percent of a property’s value. His total investment in the 10 buildings he owns is $23 million or an average $2.3 million per property.

He also owns a 60,000-sf Downtown lot at Garland Avenue and Washington Street currently used for surface parking.