Steve Walsh

Steve Walsh, a major Charlotte developer in the 1980s who donated the land for Calvary Church and later went bankrupt, has died in Florida at 61. His body was found inside his lake-front house in Winter Park, Fla., around 1 p.m., according to authorities. Winter Park Police have not said how Walsh died. Officers there asked crime scene technicians to analyze Walsh’s $1.4-million home in the city just north of Orlando, said Sgt. Pam Marcum, a police spokeswoman. Detectives will be at Walsh’s house again Thursday, and the department will use their investigation and an autopsy to determine if foul play was involved. In Charlotte in the 1980s, Walsh was Charlotte’s biggest apartment builder who helped shap development in south Mecklenburg. Among his holdings was a tract of land that would become the Piper Glen golf course, in addition to land on N.C. 51 that is now home to Calvary Church. He was also a philanthropist who gave advice to then-Mayor Sue Myrick and raised money for Republican Sen. Jesse Helms. His name was bandied about as a possible Republican U.S. Senate candidate. But in 1989, his Walsh Corp. filed for bankruptcy, a year before he filed for personal bankruptcy with debts totaling $25 million. Critics accused him of mismanaging money and using his corporation’s coffers to pay personal debts. He blamed his misfortunes on a bad investment in 1986 and successfully sued Bankers Trust New York in Arizona, eventually settling for an undisclosed amount. After Charlotte, he moved to Charleston with his wife, Paula, and four children, getting back in the apartment building business with a company called Broad Street Partners. He moved to Florida in 1998. The Orlando Sentinel described him as a well-known developer there whose projects included a $250 million hotel and condo project in downtown Orlando that has faced delays and criticism.