Capital Development paid motel owners Pushpa and I.C. Bhavscar about $3 million, or an estimated $750,000 per acre, for the tract, hospitality industry brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com. Capital plans to break ground shortly on a 28,000-sf medical plaza tentatively scheduled to open by year end.

The Bhavscars had owned and operated the 39-room property for 25 years but closed the motel in January when occupancy plummeted and nightly rates fell below $25.

"They probably paid about 25 cents per sf for that land," an industrial real estate broker intimate with area land prices tells GlobeSt.com. "It's not that unusual today for per-sf-land prices to shoot up that quickly, especially if the dirt is near a growing area of medical office buildings and hospitals."

Land prices have been steadily rising over the past 10 years on Mills Avenue, from Colonial Drive to Loch Haven Park, a local broker who is doing deals on US 17-92 tells GlobeSt.com. "Dirt you could have bought for about $2.30 per sf in 1990 is now going for 10 times that amount on certain sections of this area because there isn't that much developable land left here.