by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Once upon a time, theater managers gave away pieces of flatwear to audiences coming to the movies.
Gas stations — before they became service stations — had attendants who checked under the hood, washed windshields, and gave away mugs and mementos with each fill-up.
And some condo marketers in Miami were offering to give away Cadillacs with every purchase.
How the times have changed.
“The first phase of the condo development here started in the 1970s,” just as the economy started to go in the tank, said Emmett Pacetti. “They weren’t too successful. Not here, not anywhere else, either. Believe it or not, they were giving away Cadillacs in Miami if you bought a condo.
“Half the condos built in this area back then went into bankruptcy. Some of them went to timeshares to try to save them.”
Pacetti has a broader platform than most from which to compare St. Augustine Beach then and now. He ran an engineering and land surveying business from 1955 to 1983. He owned Emmett Pacetti Realty Inc., across from the old City Hall in St. Augustine, from 1970 to 2000.
“I can afford to take life easy now because I was so busy then,” said Pacetti, at home on 3 1/2 acres.
He served on the city commission for 14 years and was mayor of St. Augustine Beach for 10. His last term ended Dec. 31.
And, in 1968, he was president of the Chamber of Commerce.
“Back then, everybody always said to me, ‘Why can’t we get some development like Daytona’s getting?’ Pacetti recalled. “Now they’re saying, ‘We don’t want to be like Daytona.’
“There’s no pleasing some people.”
It sounds as though the condo explosion is reminder to “be careful what you wish for; you might get it.” But Pacetti pointed out a significant difference.
“You should remember the people who are complaining now weren’t here back then,” he said with a soft laugh.
Some long-time residents have been consistent in their opposition to development.
“We had the biggest fight when they decided to four-lane A1A from (Route) 312 on down,” Pacetti said. “We had people fighting to leave that a two-lane road.
“They thought that would stop development. Of course, it wouldn’t. The road would just be that much more crowded.”
After the economy drifted in the doldrums during the 1970s, “It was quite a while before anything else much happened,” Pacetti said. “If you think the economy is bad now, it was a lot worse then.
“The economy is not supposed to be good now. But it’s just fine as far as the builders are concerned.”
There was no Big Bang moment when the condo boom resumed in the 1980s.
“It was sort of gradual growth,” Pacetti said. “Most of the time, I would show somebody something from the real estate standpoint, and they would say they weren’t interested. Most developers are follow the leaders. If they could have seen something grand, then maybe it all would have started sooner.”
To the best of his recollection, the first condominium was Ocean Place, built on Ocean Trace East in the early 1960s.
“I just didn’t ever think there’d be that many condos sold,” he said. “Now the area’s just about built out. We only have so much land that’s zoned multi-family. To build a condominium, you have to have it zoned multi-family.
“I’m sure the commissioners will not make any more land multi-family. What you see that’s being built now is about it in this area.”
An aerial shot from St. Augustine down to Crescent Beach and beyond would show jaw-dropping differences between the 1980s and today. The changes Pacetti has seen are even more spectacular.
“I lived on Davis Shores when I was a young kid,” he said. “I used to walk that whole seawall. I had a long spear and I’d spear crabs, and there was no house or anything on it.
“Now, you can’t hardly find a place to park. And they’re million-dollar homes for little old St. Augustine, sitting on the waterfront. People spend all that money, and, if they have a party, they don’t have a place for the cars to park.
“I can’t imagine spending that much money and not having any room.”
Just as developers are cautious about taking the lead in what may be an emerging trend, they don’t want to be the last ones in line, waiting for the payoff when the bubble bursts.
“St. Johns County is the hottest area now,” Pacetti said. “The northwest part of the county is exploding, along with the northeast part. Actually, everything in St. Johns is mushrooming.
“But a place can get overbuilt. Then everything goes down. I sure don’t know when that could be; I can’t put my hand on my crystal ball. But you can build more than the public can digest.”
As a younger man, the St. Augustine native left the area for 10 years. He graduated from St. Johns College High School in Washington, D.C., and, in 1946, from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.
“It was a two-year program that was accelerated to get officers into the Merchant Marine,” he said. “I sailed as a cadet on merchant ships carrying explosives and bombs to troops in Europe.”
He also was commissioned in the Naval Reserve and received his engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, N.Y.
Through it all, “I couldn’t wait to get back to St. Augustine.”
Though he was asked to exclude local pride from his answer, he could think of no particular reason other than “good judgment” why so many newcomers have arrived in St. Augustine Beach.
Upon further reflection, Pacetti amended his answer slightly.
“The reason why they’re here is all the other places filled up,” he said. “St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach are among the last strongholds. People have finally discovered them after almost every other place has been developed.
“I’m surprised. I don’t know what took them so long.”
The possibility that explosive growth was coming to St. Augustine and St. Johns County would not have been taken seriously in the 1960s.
Back then, Pacetti said, the former Model Land Co. was a major property-owner in the area. The company, the landholding division of the Flagler system, had an office in the old city hall, across from Pacetti’s business. He thought something could be done with one parcel in particular.
“They had 40 acres that is now the Woodland subdivision,” Pacetti recalled. “I talked to them about developing it, and they said, ‘If we develop it, who’s going to buy?’
“St. Augustine just wasn’t growing at that time. It took several years to talk them into it.
“We built Unit One of Woodland subdivision on septic tanks. When we went to do Unit Two, we decided to put in a central sewer system. It’s the first condo that went in out here with a central system.”
Although Pacetti sees no sign of development slowing down, “I also don’t see how it can continue at this pace. The only way it will end is oversaturation.That’s when you have more facilities than there are people capable of buying them.
“As long as the demand’s there, people will keep building. Somebody is going to get caught on the other end of it some day. But it may be a long ways off.”