Nov. 18--TAMPA -- David Straz Jr., the philanthropist who donated millions to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center this week, built a small empire of community banks in southeastern Wisconsin, then did it again in the Tampa Bay area.

On Tuesday, friends and business associates said Straz had the Midas touch when it came to building banks. He purchased his first bank in Wisconsin at age 25 and sold his last bank in Tampa, Southern Exchange Bank, six years ago for $150 million.

James Harmon, a certified public accountant in Kenosha, Wis., said Straz's huge gift to the performing arts center isn't out of character. Harmon has been Straz's accountant since the late 1960s, even after Straz moved to Florida.

"Over the years, he's been very, very charitable," Harmon said. "But he's been very loyal to Marquette University, and I've been impressed with how loyal he's been to me."

On Monday, the performing arts center announced it had received a huge contribution from Straz, 67, and the center eventually will be renamed the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.

The center hasn't revealed the size of the gift, and Straz wouldn't divulge the information in an interview Tuesday. However, it is thought to be the largest such gift to a cultural institution in Tampa.

A graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Straz bought his first bank in 1967 in Grand Marsh, Wis. At the time, young Straz probably didn't have the gravitas of most heads of banks. However, it was a meager start: The potato and corn farming town in central Wisconsin had just 150 people and his bank had only three employees, Straz said Tuesday.

From that beginning, Straz built what Harmon described as a "banking empire" in southeastern Wisconsin. It wasn't nearly the size of big regional Wisconsin banks such as M&I Bank, but grew to 26 branches organized under the name First Bank Southeast.

By 1980, the Milwaukee native was ready for a warmer climate.

"I had experienced enough of the cold winters in Wisconsin and wanted to get out of the cold winters, so I began to look for a bank to buy in Florida," he says.

Leaving his Wisconsin banks in the hands of a trusted president, Straz scoured the state for opportunities. He snapped up tiny First Gulf Beach Bank & Trust of St. Pete Beach in 1980 and bought First Bank and Trust of Belleair Bluffs from the DeBartolo real estate family a few years later.