by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Mike Bugg says Jacksonville is one the last affordable areas in the country that still has so much to offer. And he would know.
Bugg is a 1978 graduate of Flagler College who spent the early years of his professional career with MCI, working in New York and London while opening the better part of 20 offices before selling them. One day a friend called and suggested that Atlanta could be the next hot market for new construction condominiums and condo reclamation projects. The friend was right. He and Bugg started The Condo Store, which Bugg owned exclusively for seven of the 10 years the company existed before selling to Coldwell Banker.
“We specialized in new multi-family developments and conversions,” said Bugg. “We were the largest in Atlanta. We were everywhere. We did 90 percent of the new condo developments and conversions.”
With experience, an entrepreneurial itch, capital in his pocket and a ton of sand in his shoes, Bugg returned to Florida and opened the first Lifestyles Realtors office in Jacksonville Beach in October 2001, where he is the president/broker and oversees a staff that is literally busting out of the walls. “We have to share desks and most of our sales staff doesn’t even have a desk here,” said Bugg, who does have a desk, but it’s nondescript and tucked in the corner.
Since opening, the growth of Lifestyles has kind of mirrored the growth of the entire area. They have three offices in town, another two specialty offices that don’t go by Lifestyles Realtors and there is more planned.
“We are opening a new office in Marsh Landing in the next 60 days,” said Bugg, who lives in Atlantic Beach. “It will be bigger and it will serve as our corporate headquarters. We are all moving, but we will keep this office in Jacksonville Beach as a retail office.
“Everything here is out of control because North Florida is still being discovered. People are moving around within Jacksonville, but a lot of people moving into new communities are from cities like Atlanta and Chicago and lots of people are moving up here from South Florida. You can always find a place that’s affordable, but it might not necessarily be where you want it. Here, there is so much land to build on, just about everything is where you want it or near where you want it.”
Despite being located at the beach and with plans to relocate to Ponte Vedra, Lifestyles doesn’t discriminate regarding its developments. The company currently has projects all over the area including Riverside, Ortega, Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach and Baymeadows. However, its Springfield development — a partnership with SRG Homes & Neighborhoods — that really intrigues Bugg.
“Mack Bissette (owner of SRG) is a real entrepreneur and visionary,” said Bugg. “He goes into urban neighborhoods and reproduces vintage homes like those in Springfield and they sell like hotcakes. Today, they are going for anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000.”
Bugg said a neighborhood like a revitalized Springfield may appeal to a few in the Jacksonville area looking for a more urban lifestyle, but most of his clientele comes from out of town.
“They are from New York, Atlanta, Chicago — places like that. They don’t think about those kind of neighborhoods the way we do,” said Bugg referring to the less-than-desirable elements that still exist. “They like a neighborhood that’s diversified. What I have found is Springfield is a close-knit neighborhood kind of like the beach. People watch out for each other.”
Bugg says the whole area is still growing and as far as he
can tell, not much will slow down anytime soon. Plenty of available, affordable land and a market conducive to renovations thanks to low interest rates and an abundance of labor are
combining to keep companies like Lifestyles thriving. The company also has offices in Tampa, Orlando, Melbourne and Atlanta. That Southern theme is about to change, however.
“We are getting ready to open an office in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area,” he said. “It is a totally different market, but it’s an amazing condo market.”