Six/Ten Continues to Invest in Winter Haven & Polk County, Delivering Opportunity to Residents

Six/Ten bills itself as “Winter Haven 2.0,” the source for leasing needs in Polk County’s second-largest city. It continues to invest in the future of the city it calls home. 

Led by Bud Strang, Kerry Wilson and Joseph Bogdahn, Six/Ten owns and manages 675,000 square feet of commercial property, according to its website. They have a deep passion for Winter Haven, but also support economic development throughout Polk County. 

“As a whole, the county has come a long way,” said Strang, President & CEO of Six/Ten. “We used to be considered the county in the middle of nowhere. Now, we’re in the center of what’s becoming one of the country’s biggest markets with 12 million people within 90 minutes.  

“The good news is the county’s economic base has diversified tremendously; we’re not just citrus or phosphate. There are a lot of new businesses moving in. Job creation is strong. You don’t have to get in the car to go to Orlando or Tampa to work.” 

The county has been bolstered by what’s going on across the state, he said, namely the exploding cost of living along the coast and the challenges living there presents, such as traffic and insurance. “Even though prices have moved quite a bit here, we’re still a more affordable option than South Florida and the coast.” 

Winter Haven City Manager T. Michael Stavres greatly appreciates Six/Ten. “They are led by long-time local residents who have a vested interest in making Winter Haven the best medium-sized city in Florida. Unlike non-local developers who return to other communities at the end of the project or end of the day, they live here and hold themselves accountable for the quality and residual impacts of the projects they deliver.”

Just Opened: The Exchange

Six/Ten has been innovative in its thinking, developing co-working spaces to fill certain needs –places where entrepreneurs can innovate and collaborate, leading to productivity. Each location has its own special touch, giving those in need a variety of options.  

In March 2025 it opened the fourth co-working facility under The Exchange brand. The now four facilities are: 

Flexibility is Key

Strang said, “The Exchange offers things a lot of folks are looking for. They like the flexibility and lower costs – it’s become a thing across the country. We’re pleased how that turned out.” 

He added: “All types of businesses are going that route – lawyers, CPAs, home health care. It fits in really well with what we’re trying to do in downtown Winter Haven. We look at the entire 80 blocks of downtown as an incubator.”  

The name stems from the former use of one building – The Exchange Bank. 

Strang said the company likes working with medical office groups, some of whom use space in The Exchange. Six/Ten just finished a project for Millenium Health that opened in the last month.  

Coming Soon

The company has a couple projects in their final stages or just completed:  

• Six/Ten is finishing up its next set of apartments, Breeze, 102 rental units scheduled to open in July or August 2025 a block to the south of Grove Roots Brewing. Co. Developed by DevMar, it’s a boutique hotel that offers luxury living in downtown Winter Haven. It will include a pool, cafe’ lounge, fitness center and more amenities. 
• The first phase of Bowen Yard – six restaurants in an open-air food hall – has opened, so Six/Ten is starting the second phase, which will include a 20,000-sqare-foot building west of a park the city is creating, Strang said. Named for F. Gilbert Bowen, a giant in citrus and a philanthropist in Winter Haven, the new building will be a food court concept with a lot of outdoor space. “It’s a block from the Breeze apartments, so we wanted to get more food and beverage options downtown. It’s the Armature concept (Armature Works is a historic building in Tampa that was repurposed into a mixed-use hub) on a smaller scale. With more people living downtown, we need more things for them to do.”  

Boosting Economic Development

Adding amenities downtown is critical for the area, making it a place where people can live, work and play, Strang said. 

“We look at downtown specifically — people are going to coffee shops, restaurants, the Ritz Theater. It’s important that as more people move downtown, they have places to go. And affordability is a big issue and just part of the story. Think about transportation – if you live an hour from where you work, there is a large transportation cost. If you can live, work and play in the same area – it all fits together. Lakeland is doing it.” 

The city – the city manager, City Commission and staff — has been very cooperative, Strang said. “They are fully embracing the downtown redevelopment concept. If you get downtown really working well, that helps the entire city. They have a couple new projects – the park, a cafe dining district on Central – that are coming online. And there’s a new steakhouse – Aria – that’s opening in May 2025,” owned by the people who started the very popular restaurant Arabella’s. 

Stavres said Winter Haven “is fortunate to have an organization such as Six/Ten in the community.  While Six/Ten’s objective is to deliver projects that effectively achieve their organizational goals, they don’t do it in a vacuum.  They consistently engage with the city to ensure their objectives align with those of the city, and both entities routinely work together leverage respective investments in a way that provides tangible benefits to the greater community.” 

The Future

Six/Ten is watching the tariff situation closely as it plans to work with DevMar again to develop an 8—unit multifamily building next to The Exchange.  

In the next three to five years, its goal is to have 400 to 500 units available to rent downtown, Strang said. “After Breeze opens, we will have 230 to 240. Our big push is to get to 400 or more in the downtown core.”