Seminoles Sell Casino-Planned Land for $25M

Butler paid the Seminole Tribe of Florida $25 million, or $20,833 per acre (48 cents per sf), for the undeveloped site along West Lake Tohopekaliga in Osceola County, 20 miles south of Downtown Orlando. Osceola County real estate records show the Seminoles paid $28.7 million, or $28,091 per acre (60 cents per sf), when they bought the land from the Partin Ranch family in 2001.

"A helluva [good] deal for the new owners," Dean Fritchen, a senior broker in the Winter Park office of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT, tells GlobeSt.com.

After the sale, Butler transferred ownership of the land to locally based Regional Development/192 LLC which plans an expansive residential venture on the site, according to locally based Vance Realty Group which handled the transaction. The agriculture-zoned land borders the Florida Turnpike and the Kissimmee/Osceola County Neptune Road corridor.

Vance Realty president Arnold J. Matyas and Vance associate John Goss structured the deal for Butler Ridge. Matyas says the sale was set in motion two years ago shortly after Goss left his position with the Seminoles' bank organization where he was responsible for setting up the ATM network for the tribe's Florida casinos.

"We immediately began working on the tribe to sell the parcel," says Matyas. "The political climate in Washington, Florida and Osceola County were not favorable to the land being declared a reservation, opening the door to gambling here in Central Florida."

The broker adds, "After all, this is Osceola County, not Broward County [in South Florida] where the Seminoles have casinos. John understood the tribe and its leadership and knew what would be required to make the deal happen and what potential buyers would not be constrained by stockholder obligations."

Despite receiving less than what they had initially paid for the land, Matyas says the deal with Butler Ridge Development is "a win for the Seminoles who chose to divert their resources to redevelopment of their other Florida casino locations." The broker says the deal is also "a big win for Osceola County and expansion of its residential tax base in an area chafing for additional development."

For eight-year-old Vance Realty Group, the transaction marks the second $25-million deal it has closed in the last two years. In July 2003, the brokerage negotiated the $30-million sale of 2,000 acres in Polk County for Orlando builder ABD Development which is creating Providence, a planned-unit development on the site. Vance posted a record $128 million in closed sales volume in 2004.