Thousands gather to bid farewell to Lauderdale developer Stiles

In the developer world, Terry W. Stiles stood out.

He was honest, business associates said, one time sending a partner an unexpected check long after a deal was done, because he’d found some savings that previously hadn’t come to light. He cared about his workers, giving four of them a raise when he discovered they were the only employees making less than $15 an hour — the Stiles minimum wage. He squeezed as much fun out of life as possible, melding business relationships with friendships forged on ski slopes, or on the dock with a rum and Coke.

More than 2,000 friends, developers, business associates, employees, family members and political leaders convened Tuesday at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts to honor Stiles’ memory, as head of Stiles Corp., and as a father, husband, grandfather, and friend.

Stiles, a Fort Lauderdale business titan, died on Sept. 11 at the age of 70. He had battled esophageal cancer.

“Terry told me don’t cry for him, he’s had a wonderful life,” his widow, Jamie, struggled through tears to thank those in the packed theater. “And it’s because of you.”

The Stiles Corp. mark is visible all over Fort Lauderdale. The company founded by his father in 1951 and led by Terry Stiles for more than four decades is responsible for more than four million square feet of development on and around Las Olas Boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Among the Stiles buildings are the Bank of America tower on Las Olas, the New River Center at Las Olas and Third Avenue, the former Stiles headquarters on Southeast Second Street, and the AutoNation headquarters on Southwest First Avenue.

“Fort Lauderdale will long remember Terry Stiles and the legacy he left behind,” entrepreneur Steve Halmos said, “a man whose fingerprints are all over this town, and more than anybody, he created this city’s incredible skyline.”

The company, now led by the third generation, Terry’s son Ken, continues to build high-rises downtown.

Though friends said Stiles loved Fort Lauderdale and nurtured its downtown growth, the company built more than 43 million square feet of office, residential, industrial, retail and mixeduse projects all over the Southeast.

“He was a master at drawing out the best in people and giving them opportunities for success,” Doug Eagon, the company’s longtime president and now vice chairman said. Eagon started at the company 36 years ago. He met Jane, the woman he’d marry, there. Jane Eagon rose from assistant bookkeeper to chief financial officer of Stiles Corp.

Stiles was a prolific friend-maker, and dealmaker.

Everywhere he went, Stiles was approached by people wanting to make deals with him, former Sun Sentinel publisher Howard Greenberg recalled. A close friend of Stiles’, Greenberg said they used to joke that “we could be on the surface of the moon, and someone would jump out from behind a space rock and say, ‘Terry Stiles!’ ”

Those around him learned a lot from him, associates said.

Halmos said he sat in on a business meeting and was baffled by Stiles references to “P.O.M.” Later he learned it meant “Piles of Money” — something Stiles made a lot of, Halmos said.

“He never deviated from his core principles,” Halmos said. “Hard work, honesty, living up to commitments, doing things right, and doing the right things.”