3700 Gordon Drive (Naples, Florida)

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3700 Gordon Drive goo.gl/maps/sB63P

(For the complex history of this property scroll to next section)
Lew Finch Allyn and Dawn Allyn purchased the three separate properties that make up 3700 between 1996 and 2008. The final price paid is somewhat obscured by virtue of inter-family / company transactions with Evergreen Properties LLC.

To summarize they paid $6.3 million for the north parcel in 2008; $2.25 million for the middle parcel (including house) in 1996; and Evergreen paid $1.75 million for the south parcel in 1998 for a total of $10.3 million and once inter-company/family is netted in likely closer to $12 million in total for the 3 properties.

3700 Gordon Drive is a very special property and a favorite for many who walk the beach at this end of Gordon Drive. Though the property is narrow, it is among the widest on Gordon Drive. The house at 3700 looks more like it belongs on a lake in the Adirondacks or New York's Finger Lake district than on Gordon Drive; alternatively, the Allyns' summer home in Skaneateles, NY looks more like it belongs on Gordon Drive binged.it/1f6f1rW .

Lew Allyn is a grandson of the founder of Welch-Allyn and spent his career working for the company from a summer job on the "shop floor" to the executive suite. His father W.B. Allyn was CEO as was Lew's brother, William. Welch-Allyn is a privately owned global medical device company with sales revenue of $700 million. Lew Allyn held various executive positions during the course of his career and retired as Chairman of Welch-Allyn Inc in 2007. Of interest, just a couple of doors down Gordon Drive, Lew's brother-in-law, Peter H Soderberg, owns a property known locally as "The Boathouse" at 3777 Gordon Drive , which Peter uses as an income property for vacation rentals www.point2homes.com/US/Other-Rental/FL/Naples/Port-Roya... . Peter had also owned 3820 Gordon goo.gl/maps/OxEkJ , which he sold in 2011. Lew's older brother, William (Bill) Allyn has a pair of houses just up the beach on Gulf Shore Blvd N with 250' fronting on the Gulf of Mexico goo.gl/maps/Wi8GJ .

More on Welch Allyn and the Allyn family in the following links

Janet "Penny" and Bill Allyn with Dawn and Lew Allyn
Florida conservancy honors the Allyn family
www.conservancy.org/pr/2013-eagle-award-winners
naples.floridaweekly.com/sites/naples.floridaweekly.com...

Tribute to Bill and Lew Allyn
www.repertoiremag.com/Article.asp?Id=2849

www.repertoiremag.com/Article.asp?Id=372
www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/12/skaneateles_med...
www.docstoc.com/docs/53064343/Welch-Allyn-Inc---Strateg...
www.welchallyn.com/about/company/history-timeline.htm‎
www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V69N2/cn-tribute.html
www.ico.edu/ICO%20Matters%20Arc/ICO-008ICOMtrs_Sp04_r6....
news.syr.edu/three-to-be-honored-nov-9-with-eggers-dist...
Former Welch-Allyn CEO bio references company's revenue
globalengage.org/about/people/dr.-julie-shimer

Welch-Allyn
www.youtube.com/user/welchallyn

Philanthropy
www.coastalbreezenews.com/2011/01/27/conservancy-of-sou...
fingerlakescentral.com/welch-allyn-donates-3000-to-help...
www.allynfoundation.org/board.html‎

the Allyns' summer home in Skaneateles, NY (New York's finger lake region)
goo.gl/maps/u13Oj
___________________________________________

Property History

3700 Gordon drive is made up of three separate parcels that were consolidated into a single 330' wide lot by Lew F Allyn between 1996 and 2008. To appreciate the number of times these parcels have changed hands and some of the players involved one first has to know that before 1980 these three parcels had a common owner (actually that owner also owned many many more parcels including the one adjacent to the north at 3630 and the two adjacent to the south at 3800 and 3820).

The three parcels that make up 3700 are located between 3630 and 3800. All three and many more were at one time owned by Dr. E.L. Tharinger who came to Naples in the 1930's. He and his wife were from Milwaukee where he was a Pathologist and the Medical Examiner, Tharinger's address was actually 3800 Gordon (adjacent to the south of the third parcel). Richard D. Kerckhoff and the Kerckhoff family, through their company, Pevely Dairy of St. Louis acquired numerous properties along Gordon Drive including some of Tharinger's holdings in the 1970's. Among those properties were the three parcels that now make up 3700.

These three parcels along with many others mostly to the south were the ultimate beneficiaries of the first relocation of Gordon Drive after Hurricane Donna in 1960. Gordon Drive was relocated 30 feet to the east leaving an unused right of way that was eventually abandoned by the city of Naples to the benefit of the adjacent property owners fronting the Gulf of Mexico.

During the 1980's the Kerckhoff family / Pevely Dairy sold off the three individual parcels (north, middle and south) that today make up 3700, each to separate owners. The Allyns consolidated them back into a single property over a period of 12 years.

This is the ownership history of the 3 parcels that today make up 3700 Gordon Drive

------------3700 - The north parcel---------------------

-2008 Lew & Dawn Allyn (the current owners of 3700) purchased from Yawney for $6.3 million
-2001 Florida Land Trust AKA Edward Thomas Yawney & Susan O Yawney purchased from Lawlor for $5 million
-1982 Elizabeth A Lawlor and Gerald T Lawlor purchased from Kerckhoff / Pevely Dariy for $416,000
-1974 Pevely Dairy / Kerckhoff family of St. Louis purchased approx 700' of Gulf front property including this parcel - mostly from Dr. E.L. Tharinger

The Allyns had already acquired the two properties to the south so the purchase in 2008 of the north parcel completed what today is 3700 Gordon Drive.

At the time, the Yawneys lived across the road on the east side at 3595 Gordon Drive goo.gl/maps/Fn33Z . When they purchased the north parcel the property was sand, they landscaped it with grass and used it for beach access. Today The Yawneys own what is arguably some of the choicest pieces of property goo.gl/maps/DyPB0 in Aqualane Shores at the south east end of 21st Ave S fronting on Naples Bay, which they have subdivided for a total of seven separate properties bounded by Marina Drive and Jamaica Lane. The Yawneys have been active in the Naples real estate market for more than two decades and their latest initiative in Aqualane included the acquisition of 810 Jamaica Lane from another prominent Naples family who at one time owned the Briggs estate (2700+2750 Gordon Drive), Darlene Stoneburner Lofgren.

The Lawlors were from St. Louis and they purchased the north parcel in 1982 for $416,000 from the Kerckhoff family who owned Pevely Dairy in St. Louis. The Kerckhoff family had accumulated numerous properties along Gordon Drive and In the early 1970's they bought up 700' of Gulf front including the three parcels that make up 3700 along with the property to the north and the two to the south (3800 + 3820) along with properties on the east side of Gordon including 3777 . Kerckhoff's younger brother, Daniel with his wife Lois O Kerckhoff had lived at 2340 Gordon, which today is part of Michael DeGroote's estate and with the original 1938 house still in use goo.gl/maps/LJhHg .

Richard Kerckhoff passed away at age 90 in 1995. He began his career at Pevely in 1930 and was its chairman when the company was sold in 1989.

This is the story of the Pevely Dairy company in St. Louis founded in the 1800's by Richard's great-grandfather.

dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/06000628.pdf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pevely_Dairy_Company_Plant

---------3700 the middle parcel ----------

The middle parcel is where the Allyns' house is situated and they purchased the middle parcel in 1996 for $2.25 million. Between 1996 and 2003 there were two additional transactions whereby the middle parcel was sold to a company (Evergreen Properties LLC) controlled by the Allyn family and then sold back to the Allyns four years later at almost double the price.

-2003 Lew and Dawn Allyn purchased back from Evergreen for $4.876 million
-1998 Evergreen purchased from Lew and Dawn Allyn for $2.4 million
-1996 Lew Allyn and Dawn Allyn purchased from estate of Barton Aiken Thomas for $2.25 million
-1988 Barton A. Thomas purchased from Donald Angst for $1.475 million
-1987 Donald Angst purchased from Lassiter??
-1986 Land Trust (John F Stanley Trustee) controlled by Lassiter from Lassiter with new house $925,000
-1984 Lassiter transferred from his Land Trust - contracted with Kurtz homes to build house that is there today
-1983 Land Trust (Robert E Lee iii - Trustee) controlled by Dr. Lawrence H Lassiter purchased from Fieldhouse for $260,000
-1982 Donald J and Kathryn J Fieldhouse purchased vacant lot from Kerckhoff family for $260,000
-1974 Richard D. Kerckhoff / Pevely Dairy / Kerckhoff family of St. Louis purchased approx 700' of Gulf front land mostly from Dr. E.L. Tharinger

The house that is 3700 Gordon Drive was built by Kurtz Homes in in 1984 for its owner at the time, Dr. Lawerence Hassel Lassiter. Dr. Lassiter had acquired the vacant property in 1983 from Donald J Fieldhouse. Don Fieldhouse was active in the Naples community investing in local real estate and back home in Indiana owned a Ford Dealership. His Naples home was in Royal Harbor and a year after purchasing 3700 from the Kerckhoff family for $260,000 he sold it for the same price to a trust controlled by Lassiter.

Lassiter was an Ophthalmologist from Chattanooga Tennessee and was founder of the Miller Eye Center affiliated with the University of Tennessee and the Lawrence H. Lassiter Eye Clinic, he passed away in 2002 at age 77.

Lassiter had been accumulating vacant lots on this part of Gordon Drive in the early 1980's and in addition to the middle property he had also acquired the south property as well as 3860 (4th house south of 3700) and 3630 (1st house north of 3700), all of which had been owned by the Kerckhoff family. The middle property, which he purchased through a Land Trust for $260,000 in 1983 was where he built the house that is today 3700 Gordon Drive. The house on the middle property was sold in 1988 to Barton A Thomas for $1.475 million. Thomas got his start in the sand and gravel business in Ohio in the 1950's and diversified into coal by-products, selling his company in the early 1970's. In the late 1970's he started a new venture in coal by-products that was sold to Union Pacific in 1990. Only in his mid-sixties, Thomas passed away in 1995 and in 1996 his wife sold the middle property to the Allyns.

Barton Aiken Thomas
www.worldofcoalash.org/awards/bartthomasbio.html

Donald Fieldhouse - Obituary
www.legacy.com/obituaries/nwitimes/obituary.aspx?pid=16...

Lawrence H Lassiter - Obituary
www.chattanoogan.com/2002/2/9/17744/Lassiter-Lawrence.a...

--------------3700 the south parcel---------------

A year after purchasing the middle parcel, the Allyn family acquired the south parcel in 1998 for $1.75 million through the family controlled company, Evergreen Properties LLC. Evergreen sold it back to the Allyns for $1.44 million in 2007 near the peak of the Florida real estate bubble. The sale was recorded at $1.44 million since the Allyns already controlled approx 75% of Evergreen making their effective purchase price over $5 million

-2007 Evergreen Properties LLC to allyn $1.444 million (adjusted)
-1998 Beyrent to Evergreen Properties LLC 1,75 million
-1986 Dr. Lawrence H Lassiter to Ms. Teryl Hubschman Beyrent $425,000
-1984 Kerckhoff Family to Dr. Lawrence H Lassiter $315,000

Lassiter who had been acquiring properties on this stretch of beach sold the south parcel in 1986 to Ms. Teryl H Beyrent for $425,000. Teryl was the daughter of Naples area resident, Sidney Hubschman a co-founder of the discount chain " Two Guys". Mr. Hubschman passed away at age 69 in 1986, he had retired to Naples in 1963. Sidney and his wife had a home on the Isles of Capri between Naples and Marco, the same home is there today owned by members of the Hubschman family goo.gl/maps/pQ9jm .

Sidney was active in local Real Estate as were his children including Teryl, next time you are in the Walmart in East Naples near 41 and Palm Drive, it was the Hubschman family that sold that property to Walmart and if you drive a bit further up Palm Drive, Teryl Road will be on your right. In fact the Hubschman family and their company Glades Inc had purchased 750 acres in that area back in 1965 for less than $1 million. The 19 acre portion they sold to Walmart in 1992 went for almost $7 million.

Teryl H Beyrent N/K/A Teryl H Brzeski is a tireless advocate for "Shade Planning" for schools and her campaign resulted in construction of shade structures on the playgrounds of Collier County elementary schools, the first school district in America to recognize the risks of early exposure to the sun and skin cancer later in life.
amarillo.com/stories/2002/08/09/fea_fightfor.shtml
and featured in this CDC shade planning manual (p.38)
www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/pdf/shade_planning.pdf

More on the Hubschman family

www.nytimes.com/1986/04/02/obituaries/sidney-hubschman....
pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/2007/10/tale-of-two...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Guys
www.leagle.com/decision/1982771422So2d349_2685
www.gladescountryclub.com/Public/history_2011.html

1973 Naples News article on The Glades and Sidney Hubschman i.imgur.com/SIZKKwZ.jpg