Charleston developer Walsh found dead in Florida

Authorities are investigating the sudden death of well-known Charleston developer Steve Walsh, who was found with an apparent gunshot wound Wednesday at his home in an exclusive Winter Park, Fla., neighborhood.

Broad Street Partners

Steve Walsh

Winter Park police were called to the home at 1 p.m. to check on Walsh after he failed to attend a scheduled meeting earlier in the day. Officers found the 61-year-old businessman dead and recovered a long gun from the scene, police said.

Winter Park Sgt. Pam Markham said an autopsy is scheduled for later today and investigators have reached no conclusions on the manner of Walsh's death. The incident, however, does not appear to be a random act of violence, she said.

Walsh's wife Paula was reportedly in Charleston when he died, police said.

Walsh was the managing partner of Broad Street Partners, which formed in Charleston in 1994 and has offices in the Lowcountry, Florida and North Carolina. The company specializes in the acquisition, development and investment management of multi-family communities, commercial/mixed use projects and town center projects throughout the Southeast. Since the 1970s, its team has developed more than 20,000 condominium and rental units, currently valued at $2 billion, according to the company's Web site.

Many of the company's high-profile endeavors were in Central Florida, where Broad Street Partners had 10 multi-million-dollar projects planned or underway as of last year, according to The Orlando Sentinel. Walsh had also become a force in Florida philanthropic circles. In 2005, Walsh and his wife gave $2.5 million in support of the University of Central Florida's efforts to establish a medical school.

Most of Broad Street Partners' work in the Charleston area has been in the multi-family market. Its local investments include the purchase and renovation a few years back of Woodbridge Apartment Homes on Ashley River Road. Walsh's firm also built Ashley Knoll, a rental complex off St. Andrews Boulevard, for an Atlanta investor. That 408-unit property was later converted into condominiums.

In another deal, his company anted up $22 million in mid-2003 for the 300-unit River Oaks apartments in Mount Pleasant at Interstate 526 and Wando River.

Walsh was known as a determined businessman who had weathered ups and downs, the Sentinel reported. He and his company emerged from a 1990 bankruptcy filing and went on to become a major force in development once again, though some Florida deals had faltered recently amid objections from residents and the struggling real estate market, the Sentinel stated.

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.