by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
The Surface name is hard to live up to, but Frank Surface III is doing pretty well.
There’s his father, Frank Surface Jr., an attorney who is retired from the active practice of law, most recently from LeBoeuf, Lamb, Green & MacRae and is now working with Community Resource Systems. There’s his mother, Sally Surface, who is very involved in community affairs, including the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens and Junior League. There’s his wife, Heather Surface, who is the communication director for the Jacksonville Super Bowl Host Committee and then there’s his brother, David Surface, who put together an investment group which purchased and started renovating the Elks Club building downtown while working with Wilson & Nolan of Florida.
“I’ve worked real closely with my father ever since I was a kid,” said Surface. “He has been my biggest supporter, confidante and best friend. I have definitely networked off of his relationships and I think I’ve added some value in those situations and in his relationships. We’ve worked together ever since I graduated from college in 1986.”
Surface is making his own name in Jacksonville — in the marina business.
While in high school, Surface took a job at Lamb’s Yacht Center Inc. near Ortega. While earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington and Lee University, he would come home during the summers and work at Lamb’s and B&W Marine Construction.
“Through those jobs, I developed some relationships in the marina business,” said Surface. “After college, I came back to Jacksonville and got a job with Atlantic Mortgage and Investment Corporation. I worked for that company for a year and a half and then my father agreed to work with me and we purchased Lamb’s Yacht Center, Inc.”
He and his father developed the neighboring piece of property (it was sitting dormant) into Lake Shore Dry Storage under a separate partnership, Lake Shore Dry Storage Ltd.
The principals of that partnership are Surface Jr., Surface III, Bryan Simpson Jr. and Kurt Mori.
“We put together a separate partnership to own, develop and operate a marine dry storage retail mall,” said Surface, who is president of the Lake Shore Dry Storage.
As president of Lake Shore Dry Storage Ltd., Surface manages the partnership.
The facility is managed by the Santa Rosa Island Company, which has an office downtown in Independent Square and where Surface is a licensed real estate broker and vice president.
“I manage the partnership primarily from a real estate perspective by enhancing value, maximizing rental revenue and income streams on the property,” said Surface. “I make sure the bills, taxes, insurance and employees get paid and I supervise the business.”
Lamb’s Yacht Center is gone from the partnership: it was sold back to the Lamb family in 1995.
When thinking of real estate development, most would not think of it in terms of marinas.
“It was a development opportunity and it is very valuable real estate because it is waterfront,” said Surface. “It requires property management in terms of maintaining the structures, buildings, equipment and leasing of space.”
Surface is also involved in the Cedar River Marina, which is owned by Southfork Partnership. Santa Rosa Island Company and Surface are the principals of the Southfork Partnership.
“If you were to sum up what we do, we are property managers,” said Surface. “In order to have dry storage, you have to have real estate.”
He said you don’t necessarily have to have a real estate license, but it certainly has helped him along the way.
“It’s the training,” said Surface. “The Florida Real Estate Institute has a great training program. Atlantic Mortgage and Investment Corporation had a great training program. The training in real estate that you get through those organizations and the relationships that you can develop from people within those organizations help in the management aspect of the property.”
He said having the real estate license helped him to learn the laws, finances, insurance, investor expectations and maintenance requirements.
“A marina is a real estate asset that has to be managed very similar to office buildings, office parks, apartment complexes, hospital buildings and the like,” said Surface. “It has to be managed and a third party management party can provide that service better than an individual.”
Because he doesn’t own the properties — they are owned by investors — he said there needs to be a third party fiduciary type relationships with those investors.
Though he has many titles and wears many different hats, he doesn’t see himself as different than anyone else.
“I’m Frank Surface,” he said. “These titles don’t mean anything to me. I look at it in terms of the fact that I have a job to do just like anybody else and it is to manage the properties that I have been asked to manage. How I got involved in it is one thing, but I’m still managing property and right now I am managing three properties, Cedar River Marina, Lake Shore Dry Storage and Largo Intercoastal Marine Business Trust in Tampa.”
Surface said he chose the marina business because he loves the water.
“I love what I do,” he said. “I’ve been doing it since 1988 full-time and I thoroughly enjoy what I do. Everyday I love getting up in the morning and working. There are struggles and certain days are not as pleasant. There are ups and downs in this business, just like any other business, but I do enjoy what I do.”