Prime Marbella Tract Near Disney in Play Again

Regan's son, Donald T. Regan Jr., tells GlobeSt.com the asking price is "in the mid-$40 million range," or about $300,000 per acre ($6.89 per sf). Regan says his Sarasota-based company, Combined Capital Realty Services, is "getting plenty of inquiries" on the land. Regan adds the property was appraised in March 2003 at $57 milion.

The 135-acre property, originally a 270-acre rural site called Ruby Lake Ranch, was first sold in 1997 to Jean Pierre Cuenant, a Paris-educated lawyer and president of JPC Development Corp. in suburban Winter Park. The price: $34 million or $125,926 per acre ($2.89 per sf), as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

The deal at that time stood as the largest land transaction in the past five years in Central Florida, based on price, according to Orange County real estate records. Marbella is located on the west side of Interstate 4, south of Sand Lake Road, and about one mile from the entrance to Walt Disney World.

Rob McEwan, a vice president in the local office of CB Richard Ellis Inc., told GlobeSt.com in 2001, "I don't know of a comparable property in metro Orlando that is surrounded by a 60-acre lake and has valuable Interstate 4 frontage." The west-bound Interstate 4 frontage is 3,400 feet and 33.5 acres.

McEwan was marketing the property for Cuenant who had planned to sell off the tract in separate parcels for individual development of hotels, timeshares, retail, restaurants and offices. Half of Marbella was eventually sold off to various developers but the property never attained its projected heights as a premier commercial community.

Regan's company bought the property back bought the property back at a recent public foreclosure sale in Orlando. The senior Regan had initially purchased the tract as a long-term investment under the corporate name of RTD-ONE Inc. Regan Jr. is marketing the land for RTD-ONE Inc., the owner of record. RTD-ONE Inc. never intended to develop this land, only to hold it as a long-term investment," Regan tells GlobeSt.com.

GlobeSt.com previously reported that when Cuenant tried to sell off Marbella parcels in 1997 and 1998, he was asking $10,000 to $14,000 per room for hotel development and $16,000 to $20,000 per unit for timeshare developments. Land for general commercial projects with master drainage and retention pond areas in place was listed for $15 to $20 per sf or about $653,4000 to $871,200 per acre.