Seminole County's $100,000-per-Acre Purchase Puzzles Brokers

Area brokers and some members of the county's Natural Lands Advisory Committee are privately questioning the mathematics of the deal for the county.

Seminole is buying 43 prime commercially zoned acres at State Road 434 and the Central Florida Greeneway for $4.3 million or $100,000 per acre ($2.30 per sf). The dirt is being bought from several undisclosed individual landowners.

The location, near suburbanWinter Springs, FL, eight miles from Downtown Orlando, is in an area that would attract commercial and industrial development quickly, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

Both roads are major local commercial arteries. The 43 acres are on the southwest corner of State Road 434 and the Greeneway.

County planner Colleen Rotella has told commissioners parts of the land could be used for either a public park , a dog runaround area, baseball and softball fields and expansion of the Black Hammock Trailhead of the Cross Seminole Trail, adjacent to the tract.

Some of the land leftover after public uses for it have been exhausted could be sold to private developers, the planner has told elected officials. But some members of the Natural Lands Advisory Committee are confused because its mission has never been to buy land for ballfields or recreational purposes, a member tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

Especially confusing at this stage are the county's long-range plans to sell some of the dirt for private commercial enterprises.

"That leads me to wonder if some developers aren't quietly supporting this purchase in the first place," a longtime Orlando landbroker who works the Seminole County market tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

Local governments generally buy land for conservation or preservation purposes for under $1 per sf or no more than $45,000 per acre, records of previous conservation land purchases show.

Equally perplexing to some insiders at Seminole County government is the proposed three-step purchase package. The county plans to withdraw $1.8 million of natural lands funds; add another $1 million from the trails fund; and tap general funds for $1.5 million.

The natural lands committee generally spends under $500,000 for land purchases. This would be the group's largest land purchase to date--and it isn't going directly for conservation or preservation purposes.

County officials and Rotella couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline.