In the middle of the competition are Orange County elected officials. They are on record as saviors of the Econ area at the same time they are promoting high-tech development at the nearby Central Florida Research Park.

The 1,000-acre park is approaching capacity and could run out of developable land by 2006, according to some county planners. The park is two miles from Rybolt Ranch.

Orange County government supports and promotes the park which has turned out to be one of the most successful industrial properties in the area, attracting big-name national companies as tenants and property owners.

If the county wants to continue attracting high-paying, high-tech jobs (average $60,000 per year) to the area, elected officials will have to bend the rules and allow development east of the Econ, area planners not associated with either Rybolt Ranch or the county tell GlobeSt.com.

County chairman Rich Crotty and his advisors feel discussing new development east of the Econ is premature. That position comes as Agere Systems Inc. announced Jan. 23 the company is selling its 1.1 million-sf, high-tech building in south Orlando with the potential loss of 1,100 high-paying jobs if a buyer isn't found quickly to take over Agere's computer chip manufacturing business.

Listening to both the developers' and environmentalists' pitches is Eloise Rybolt whose family already is developing Rybolt's Reserve subdivision, west of the Econ River. Rybolt Ranch runs from the river east toward Chuluota Road and from the Orange-Seminole County border south to Lake Pickett Road.

Rybolt and research park officials couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline. But area brokers intimate with prices in east Orange County tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity the Rybolts could get at least $15,000 to $20,000 per acre for the ranch right now if they decided to sell. Those numbers equate to 34 cents to 46 cents per sf or a total $31.5 million to $42 million.

The county tried to buy 500 acres of the ranch's 2,100 acres in 1998 but couldn't meet the undisclosed asking price at the time, according to county staffers. Brokers point to the mushrooming Avalon community west of the Econ for a barometer on land prices.

Miami-based Levitt Brothers (LBHC Holdings LLC) just paid Avalon South Village LLC $11 million cash or $24,176 per acre (56 cents per sf) for 455 gross acres on South Alafaya Trail in Avalon Park. Patrick Chisholm of Maury L. Carter & Associates Inc., Orlando and Jim Dowd of Dowd Properties Inc., Winter Park, FL, handled the deal.

Although Orange County doesn't currently have funds to buy the ranch, some conservationists point to a creative acquisition the county recently made with another area ranch owner, Steve Holland, as a possible route to follow in buying Rybolt Ranch.

On the Holland deal, reported Jan. 17 by GlobeSt.com, the county is buying half of the 5,200-acre Holland Ranch for $7.5 million or 2,857 per acre (6.5 cents per sf) and splitting the cost with the St. Johns River Water Management District. Holland has promised to preserve the remaining half of the land by selling the dirt to a commercial land mitigation bank.