Heading through Gainesville Regional Airport, John Fleming noticed a photo of the Thomas Center on the wall and then another of the Hippodrome Theatre. Noticeably absent, in his mind, was the Seagle Building—Gainesville’s tallest building for nearly the past century.  

“If you think about iconic buildings, those are iconic buildings in Gainesville,” Fleming said. “But given its look, until recently, I understand why they didn’t show [the Seagle Building].” 

Fleming works as managing partner of Trimark Properties, a local real estate developer and property management firm filled with Gator alums who’ve shaped the city. The group has built—among dozens of other projects—Midpoint Park and Eatery, the Ingenuity Building in the Innovation District and Ashton Lane Luxury Apartments.  

In 2022, Trimark Properties bought the bottom six floors of the Seagle Building, equivalent to 70% of the building thanks to a larger first and second floor. Along with 15 owners of 17 condos on floors 7 through 11, Trimark has started to refresh the building.  

Fleming’s team worked to repaint the entire building in the past six months. He said people only saw mold and deterioration when looking at the building before. Now, the features stand out.  

The 10th floor is painted a different shade, and this banding along the top makes it stand out. The floor also features three unique windows that stick out from the building. These also have dark green to highlight the architecture.  

These features and other moldings were lost behind the deterioration and one shade of building color, Fleming said.   

The Seagle Building was last overhauled in 1983. Since then, Fleming said not much work has been done, with maintenance left deferred for years. Before the fresh coat of paint went on this year, Trimark installed a new roof on the 10th and 11th floors, installed a new water pump, fixed a broken elevator and redid the basement parking garage.  

Right now, Trimark has gutted the fifth and sixth floors to turn into office spaces. Both floors will have three, 1,500-square-foot offices for lease. Depending on how quickly the market uses those offices, he said Trimark might continue with offices or consider switching to apartments for the third and fourth floors.  

As the company gets construction bids, Trimark has set to replace 500 windows and refurbish another 150 windows to fix leak issues before remodeling the insides. Fleming said the windows will take until February to finish after the team started a couple weeks ago with the empty middle floors. He said they wanted to find a rhythm on all the other floors before working in the condos, hoping the practice creates a smooth process for residents.  

The old window frames are wood, and the building has had issues with termites, Fleming said. The new windows will bring energy efficiency and other improvements of modern materials, but the window choice aimed to be close to the old counterparts.  

Fleming said the choice hit the mark. The new windows on the sixth floor look like the older seventh-floor windows with a fresh coat of paint.  

On the bottom floor, Fleming said the company will use its own team to remove, refurbish and reinstall some of the historic steel windows. Around the bottom of the building, Trimark redid stone portions that were starting to break apart. A company out of Jacksonville matched the existing stone color to keep the unity.   

It’s part of the balancing act between historic preservation and historic reuse.  

“In 1983 they gutted the building. . . . so really, we’re left with the shell,” Fleming said of the historic nature. “So this is kind of a mix between historic reuse and historic preservation.”  

Trimark has had its share of historic projects—especially just east of campus in the University Heights South Historic District. From homes to offices, Fleming said the company is well acquainted with this type of project. But the Seagle Building presents the complexities of historic projects on a larger scale. 

Fleming said the team is taking the project piece by piece and dealing with surprises as they come.  

“Since this was built originally in 1926, you don’t know what happened between 1926 and the time you get started,” Fleming said. “It’s buried somewhere. And so, when you open up a wall, you thought you were doing ‘X’ and now, structurally, you can’t.”   

For the Seagle Building, the team found false ceilings where one had been installed over the other, bringing the height down. The workers removed some of the old ceilings to gain more space, but also left some of the oldest sections.  

As a company full of Gators, Fleming said part of buying the building was restoring an important place in Gainesville’s history. Above the main entrance on both sides, gators are carved into the stone, and the building’s original name, previously emblazoned with bronze lettering, was the John F. Seagle Building of the University of Florida.  

Fleming notes that UF was one of the stakeholders that helped finish the building in the 1930s.  

The building started construction in 1926 at the end of a land boom in the Roaring 20s. Originally, it was to be the Kelley Hotel, but after the Great Depression came crashing down, the building stopped moving upward—a bare, concrete skeleton above Gainesville’s tree canopy.  

A decade later, UF purchased the building with funds from the city of Gainesville, Alachua County and Georgia Seagle, who donated in honor of her brother for whom the building got its name. 

The building opened as the Florida state museum and was used for university offices. By 1955, half a million visitors had walked through its door, with lighted “Museum Entrance” and “Museum Exit” signs.  

UF left the building in the 1970s and eventually sold it in 1983 for $1. The new owner renovated the building for condos, but UF’s touch remained. The elevator doors feature a round symbol with SB in the top half and UF in the bottom—Seagle Building, University of Florida.  

Though, Fleming points out that the script used makes the ‘F’ look like an ‘A’. He said these initials also work since the building is located on University Avenue.  

Now, Trimark wants to preserve that history and architecture because you can’t redo it, he said.  

“We build lots of stuff; we build lots of nice stuff. I can’t replicate that,” Fleming said, pointing to the old First Baptist Church across the street. “There’s no way. The craftsmen don’t exist, and if they did, you’d have to bring them in from all over the world to do it.”   

The former First Baptist Church at 425 W. University Ave., built in 1896, was bought by Trimark around six months after the Seagle Building. Fleming said the company plans to tackle that project after the Seagle is finished.  

As the Seagle Building’s 100th birthday approaches, Fleming said it could take a few years to finish.  

For Trimark, the company needs to successfully market its office space and decide how to renovate the remaining floors it. For public areas like the lobby, Fleming said it might depend on how long before the condo owner’s association pulls together the funds to renovate.  

Out front, Fleming said he plans to reinstall a canopy after removing the old green one after buying into the building. He said the plans also include reinstalling bronze letters to proclaim the building’s name and maybe embossing gold foil over the stone gator figures.  

Along with the eastern side, hooks in the side of the building show where an old canopy of sorts ran the length of the building. Fleming said the team will keep the hoops and string lights to create a lit walkway.  

Depending on the opportunities that come, Fleming said they’d like to have a cafe or deli on the bottom floor toward the front. The building can’t accommodate a full restaurant since regulations require a hood, and at 11 stories, that’s a long way to install it. 

Fleming said the goal is to retain ownership of Trimark’s 70% of the building. But he’s open to possibilities that come. If a museum or unique attraction wanted to open in Seagle but required ownership of the space, he said it could work out.  

“I want Seagle to be successful,” Fleming said. “So the only reason, if we did apartments, that we keep them versus sell them is I still control the association. I still control the work that’s going to get done and get fixed. If not, it goes back to the way it was.” 

Fleming said he wants the Seagle Building to seem set apart since It’s unique in Gainesville. Apartments would be top of the line and could cater to UF or downtown Gainesville.  

He said the apartments would be some of the nicest in a building with views and history that you can’t replicate. It would, like in times past, be an exclusive building, he said. 

The Seagle Building has served as a museum, homes, offices, market and backdrop for nearly 100 years of Gainesville history.  

In 1965, the Seagle Building stands tall behind Col. Sanders riding in a Rolls Royce during a UF parade, and each year for Gators homecoming and A Very GNV Holiday Parade, the building remains.  

Moving forward, a refurbished Seagle Building might refresh pride in Gainesville’s skyscraper. 

“It’s part of a give back to Gainesville,” Fleming said. “We want to make sure that 100 years from now this building’s still here, it still looks good, and no one got stupid and tore it down or did anything else.”