Article from August 1998

As featured in August 1998

Change Maker

Home Builder Spreads Hope Through New Housing

By William T. McGee

A new peach-colored stucco apartment complex brightens the dreary landscape of a South Florida community notorious for drug sales and peppered with vacant lots and abandoned buildings.

Fort Lauderdale developer Milton Jones, who built Sun Garden Apartments and opened them last month in the small city of Dania, specializes in bringing such hope to the 'hood. The 24 apartments, with their tiled roofs, private balconies and spacious rooms, have sparked a sense of rebirth in the blighted area and stimulated other affordable housing projects nearby.

In a career spanning more than 20 years, Jones, 57, has developed and built projects in South Florida including apartments, shopping centers, office buildings, industrial parks and warehouses. He has become one of South Florida's most prolific businessmen and achieved rare success as an African-American developer.

"I've sort of gone my own way, on the road less traveled," said Jones, who formed his company, Milton Jones Development Corp., with his wife, Barbara. "I focus on bringing goods and services in areas where we don't usually get a lot of good, clean development."

Jones first impressed local officials and residents when he opened Regal Trace, a 28-acre, 400-unit development that offers amenities such as a daycare center, swimming pool, basketball court and two fitness centers-all in the heart of Fort Lauderdale's black community. Using $34 million in public and private financing, he built that sprawling project three years ago among renovated shops, modest single-family homes and debris-strewn lots.

Located at Sistrunk Boulevard and Northwest Fourth Avenue, the development with its spotless salmon-colored building, palm trees swaying in a lush courtyard, and children romping on a nearby playground, caused some people to ask Jones why he built a Taj Mahal in the community.

"I said, 'This is what my people need. When we give people what they expect, then they feel good about themselves and take pride in it,'" said Jones. "When things are blighted, anybody can say 'Whatever I do is better than what's there.' When I go in, I'm going to build the best. I don't cut corners."

Sun Gardens, while much smaller than Regal Trace, has many of the same quality materials and amenities. The complex, which so far has attracted a handful of tenants, offered the first rentals for low-income families in years in the struggling Northwest section of Dania, a city sandwiched between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Jones grew up there and his parents still live there.

"We always try to set the tone and become a catalyst for change," said Jones. "We needed more affordable housing there, something that would give people a decent, safe place to live."

The $1.7 million Sun Gardens, where two-bedroom apartments are $600 monthly, was indeed the first of several promising developments in the neighborhood. The Dania Housing Authority, the local public-housing agency, recently finished a long-overdue paint job on a 40-unit apartment building around the corner and a company called Reliance Housing bought another nearby apartment building and launched a major overhaul.

"The upscale type of environment at Sun Gardens represents a harbinger of where the community needs to go," said Arlon Kennedy, manager of the nearby Modello Park. "It says a lot that somebody is willing to take a chance on this community and to do something outside of the norm."

Additional changes occurred around the Regal Trace area. The development not only helped improve the neighborhood-Fort Lauderdale's original black settlement-but it also spurred additional development including a post office and a prenatal/urgent care facility.

Jones' handyman father, Milton Jones Sr., who worked for a wealthy landowner, told him stories that eventually inspired his interest in real estate. However, after graduating from Florida A&M University with a bachelor's degree in political science in the mid-1960s and following a stint in the Army, he dabbled in other fields including teaching and selling life insurance.

In the mid-1970s, as a young newlywed, he and Barbara put down $10,000 from their savings to buy two lots in Dania that his father had pointed out. That's where they built their first apartment and moved into one of the units.

"Before I knew it, I was acquiring more and more," said Jones. "I had to stop selling insurance so I could take care of the properties."

Jones has been taking care of property ever since. His company, with 20 employees, develops, manages and owns properties that he estimates bring in more than $1 million a year. This includes Shoppes at Dillard, a 27,000-square-foot shopping center that attracted the first Walgreens to a black neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale. He sold Copans Square, a 200,000-square-foot industrial park. Altogether, Jones and his wife own about 600 units in Dania and Fort Lauderdale.

The company was considered a top contender to build the first African American-owned hotel project in Miami Beach. Another black developer, R. Donahue Peebles out of Washington, D.C., won the project and recently broke ground on the Royal Palm Hotel.

Jones thrives on the challenges of developing properties. He has a passion for making deals with banks, government and other lending sources, who are often reluctant to invest in struggling neighborhoods and raise the quality of affordable housing. He said he turned down several major bankers who refused to give him enough money for Regal Trace.

"They will give the average developer or contractor a dollar to do a deal," he said. "They'll say to you, 'Why can't you get by on 60 cents?'"

Milton Jones Development Corp. gets over these barriers by maintaining a strong sense of family and community. His wife is a real estate agent who manages rental properties in Dania. Barbara Jones also coordinates interior design for the properties owned by the business.

His son and daughter, both lawyers, also work for the company. Sean, 33, who is vice president of the company, negotiates and structures financing for the projects, and Daphne, 34, handles evictions.

"He was on the front end of bringing community development and major tenants to areas in need of redeveloment," said Sean Jones about his father. "I'm proud that he has been able to stay the course and provide a product to the community that has not been there in the past. He's been a source of inspiration for not only myself but for others in the community."

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