News

After shuttling back and forth to Florida these past several months, Paul J. Morganti, his brothers, and other associates, have made their first plunge into Florida big time real estate. They are going to build a nine story, 98-unit condominium directly on the ocean in the burgeoning Cape Canaveral - Melbourne area, midway down the east coast of the Sunshine State. Some of them are down there this week working on plans and schedules.

Title to the ocean front acreage in the small community called Canova Beach passed three weeks ago to 2 Morganti South, Inc., a newly organized firm. But the brainwork and direction of the project will be done at the Ridgefield headquarters of Morganti, Inc., one of the country's 400 largest construction firms. The company is headed by Paul J. Morganti, former selectman of Ridgefield and son of its founder, the late John Morganti, whose company, still in existence, was John Morganti and Sons. The other sons are John, Joseph, and Robert. For many years, their mother, who lives on Island Hill Avenue here, has wintered in Florida, but further south than Canova Beach. One of those 98 new condominiums will doubtless be suitable for her.

The new condominiums in Florida will be a far cry from the four-story wooden tenement house on Bailey Avenue where Paul Morganti was born 60 years ago. They will rise high above the comparatively gentle surf that characterizes one of Florida's most beautiful beaches in the crescent beginning at Cape Kennedy, some 15 miles to the north. The Morganti condominium, to be named The Sand Dollar, is only one of many going up in the area. In Cocoa Beach, just to the north, and adjoining Patrick Air Force Base (where much of the heavy thinking was done in the early stages of the missile program), three large condominiums are in the late stages of construction. Others are on the drafting boards. But they are all smaller than Morganti's Sand Dollar.

(The sand dollar, by the way, is an aquatic creature, round and thin, from two to six inches in diameter. In May and June, maybe later, they are harvested, generally by youngsters who dive into the shallow water while an elder holds a burlap bag to hold them. They fetch $1 or less through ads in such magazines as Popular Mechanics.)

Announcement last week of the new Morganti undertaking says "The company expects to be involved in commercial and industrial projects as well as residential". But it gives no specifics. "Most people are well aware of the great growth in Florida as a retirement and winter vacation center," said Robert Morganti. "Not so well known, however, is the rapid development of Florida as an industrial, distribution and transportation center. We believe this represents a substantial opportunity for our firm."

Coincident with the Florida announcement, Morganti Inc. reports the awards of three construction contracts in southwestern Connecticut. In Newtown, for Lexington Gardens, a subsidiary of the Pepperidge Farm division of the Campbell Soup Company, a new garden sales center, a one-story Colonial structure plus greenhouses, under a construction management contract which includes responsibility for design and architecture. Also in Newtown, for the Newtown Water Company, a division of the General Water Works Company, a new office building, a one-story structure utilizing precast decorative concrete. In Greenwich, for Putnam Plaza, a 210,000 square feet, five story glass and concrete office complex with a parking garage under the building and a landscaped plaza. Architects: Emery Roth and Son, New York City.