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Prolific Sarasota homebuilder and condo developer Alan Roberts once had an unusual sign on his desk that suggested, what for some, could be a life lesson: “Help lame duck over fence,” it read, “get shit in hand every time.”
Yet Roberts, by many accounts, was the total opposite of that saying — save for its mischievous nature. In addition to his showman sense of humor, Roberts, with a Renaissance man-like life resume that ranges from diamond and antique auctioneer to a stint in the U.S. Army and developer and dealmaker to semi-pro baseball player, was someone who would gladly help anyone over the fence, says his son, Wes Roberts. “He loved helping people,” Wes Roberts says. “He saw the very best in everybody.”
Roberts died March 7, unexpectedly. He was 81.
Alan Camera Roberts was born in Louisville, Ky. and graduated high school in Texas, where he also played semi-pro baseball. He attended Trinity University in San Antonio, where he met his future wife, Laura Sarah Kay Garner. Following graduation, he joined the Army, serving in the Quartermasters Corps as a 1st lieutenant, according to his obituary. In 1963 the couple moved to Sarasota, where Roberts became an auctioneer for the Sarasota Art and Auction Gallery.
By the 1970s, Roberts had moved on to real estate, focusing on Siesta Key. He designed and developed more than 500 condos in a series of projects that included Sunrise Cove, Crescent Royale and Sunset Royale and Windward Passage. The Windward Passage project, the obituary states, included Sarasota’s first million-dollar penthouse.
With nine buildings, Roberts was one of the largest developers on Siesta at the time. He also was behind another 10 buildings in the Ashton Lakes condo community on nearby Clark Road. Roberts was early to the condo trend, too. So early that Roberts, the obituary states, had a small statue on his desk with the letters “Con-Do-Min-E-Um” so customers could pronounce it.
Like the sign about the duck, the statute was on brand for Roberts, who embraced the Florida lifestyle. He often drove one of his two 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertibles around Siesta Key, one red, one white — always with the top down. He would be smiling at the wheel, his family recalls, with a junky old trailer hooked to the back lugging furniture, building materials or faux ornamental plants from one building site to another.
“He was a giant, giant guy,” says Wes Roberts, one of two children Alan and Laura Roberts raised. “He took so much pleasure in making people happy. You’d go walk around with him and everyone wanted a piece of him. He brought so much joy to so many people.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, Roberts turned back to auctioneering, helping organizations and nonprofits raise money by being a go-to event host/auctioneer. Beneficiaries included schools, arts groups, the Sarasota Alzheimer’s Association, the Boys and Girls Club, the Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center (SPARCC) and more.
Roberts says his dad, then retired, even offered to help when Wes Roberts and his wife, Lisl Liang, launched SRQ Magazine in 1997. “He said let me help, and he just took a media kit and went around town selling ads,” Roberts says.
In his later years in life, Alan Roberts pursued other passions. That included writing screenplays, several published novels and stage plays. One major accomplishment in that life act: In 2008 he wrote and produced a full-length movie, Armed and Deadly, which remains in distribution.
Roberts says beyond the jokes and showman persona, his dad was a devoted husband — married to Laura for 59 years — father and grandfather to three grandchildren. Roberts says he learned many business lessons from his father as well, from following your passion to keeping an open mind. “He never stopped moving,” Roberts says. “He always looked for opportunities and had such confidence he could turn every opportunity into a good deal.”
On doing deals, Roberts learned another important lesson from his dad — don’t fall in love with it. “My dad told me always be ready to make a deal,” Roberts says, “but always be ready to walk away.”
(This story was updated to reflect the correct year SQR was founded.)
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