"Down the street, the asking price is $9 per sf," Paul P. Partyka of Maitland, FL-based NAI Realvest Partners Inc. tells GlobeSt.com. "The developer/owner was planning either an apartment complex or a commercial center" for the site.

Seminole, one of the state's more affluent counties, paid $4.35 million or $117,568 per acre ($2.70 per sf), high by some standards for recreational-use land, other brokers tell GlobeSt.com, but still a good price relative to prices being quoted in urban settings nearby.

At $9 per sf, the county would have paid $392,040 per acre or $14.5 million for the 37 acres, a price that would be unacceptable and unattainable for most municipal bodies, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

But Partyka didn't give up on the deal after 14 months of trying to close it for his client, Orlando developer Rob Yaeger who was acting as trustee for the corporate landowner, Jetta Point LLC.

The county acquired the prime acreage adjacent to the Cross County Seminole Trail Head near State Road 434 and State Road 417 (the Greeneway) in suburban Winter Springs, FL.

Seminole wanted the dirt as part of the Seminole County Trail, a 50-mile network of urban and wilderness trails that connects with the 1,400-mile Florida Trails system and the Seminole Wekiva Trail.

Steve Triece of the Triece Co., DeLand, FL, represented the county in the transaction.