- March 28, 2024
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A Tampa Bay Times Forum conference room was a tense place the afternoon of May 12, 2010, and Al Austin, famed developer and Republican powerbroker, was in the middle of it.
Austin, recalls Tampa businessman Dick Beard, who was in the room, held a cell phone and a worried look. The city of Tampa was one of four finalists to potentially host the 2012 Republican National Convention, and the call of joy or sadness was about to ring. Tampa, through Austin's leadership, had tried three other times to land the convention only to come up short. But this time the city won the bid.
“There was a big and spectacular yell in the room,” says Beard, a longtime friend and development competitor with Austin. “It was a pretty amazing moment.”
Austin, says Beard and many other friends and relatives, had a lifetime full of amazing moments. Austin died May 21 at his home in Tampa. He was 85 years old.
On the developer side Austin's most noteworthy success was the Westshore business district in Tampa, one of the largest office park clusters in Florida. Austin bought land in the area, near Tampa International Airport, when it was made up mostly of palmetto trees in the 1960s and 1970s. He later co-founded the Westshore Alliance, a pro-business group. That's where he got to know Beard, another young developer.
“Al was first in Westshore,” says Beard. “He was the visionary.”
Beard recalls Austin always had a smile and was always friendly, though the pair competed for properties, financing and tenants. Austin's wife, Beverly, regularly joined Austin at events and the couple was well-known in town. Austin, says Beard, “had and was a character.”
Beard says his new friend surprised him one day in the late 1970s, when Austin invited him to a Republican gathering and to hear one particular speaker: Ronald Regan, then getting ready to run for president.
There weren't many Republicans back then in Tampa, says Beard, but Austin's passion for causes and candidates impressed him. In addition to passion, Republican Party leaders, including former Florida
Gov. Jeb Bush, have used words like “stubborn” and “tenacious” to describe Austin. Beard saw that side up-close for decades.
“He was always trying to win on an issue, whether he was directly involved or not,” says Beard. “He was a very determined guy.”