December 29, 1996

No question about it. Nathan Collier is a controversial guy. He is the developer the local underground press most loves to hate. His critics routinely accuse him of using political connections to get strings pulled at city hall. He has gone round and round with the city commission and Gainesville's bureaucracy over issues like "back-out parking" and sidewalks.

He has been, at one and the same time, the most active proponent of "urban infill" and inner-city redevelopment and the most outspoken critic of the city planning procedures and codes that discourage such redevelopment.

And if Collier doesn't exactly revel in such notoriety, neither does he seem to shy away from it.

"I don't see myself as controversial," Gainesville's largest apartment complex owner and developer told The Sun earlier this year. "If others do, that's their choice."

Collier may have more than his share of critics. But few seriously would argue the point that the Gainesville native has done more than any other single businessman to rebuild and revitalize the once-crumbling College Park neighborhood across University Avenue from the University of Florida.

Over the course of several years, Collier gradually bought up lot after lot, apartment building after apartment building in College Park, either refurbishing and expanding the existing buildings or tearing them down and starting over again. In the process, density in the neighborhood gradually has increased to the point that more and more students have been able to live within easy walking or biking distance of campus.

"I think that without Nathan's efforts, we would be years away from where we need to be," said Bruce DeLaney, a member of the College Park redevelopment advisory board. "He's been the catalyst."

"A lot of people don't realize how long it takes to make things happen in an area like that," DeLaney added. "Nathan started acquiring property there years ago -- it took 15 years to accumulate enough property to do" comprehensive redevelopment.

But it appears as though Collier's involvement in the revitalization of College Park is nearing an end. Unhappy over bureaucratic roadblocks to some of his redevelopment plans, Collier lately has indicated that he intends to wind down his inner-city projects and focus on business opportunities elsewhere.

Earlier this year, Collier donated his College Park holdings -- some 500 apartment units worth an estimated $10 million -- to the University of Florida Foundation, that gift to be received by UF after his death.

Collier called it a way to "give something back" to the community he grew up in.

"I want to go in another direction," Collier said at the time. "This made it very final."

Reprinted with permission from The Gainesville Sun

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