Land Apopka got for $4.9M in ’07 sells for far less

Apopka sold 103 acres of “surplus” land on the city’s west side for $3.2 million last week — far less than the city paid for it 10 years ago.

The city bought the site in 2007 for $4.9 million, but officials aren’t entirely sure why.

“The purpose for the purchase is not clear, at least in my mind,” said Mayor Joe Kilsheimer, elected in 2014.

Apopka sold the land south of Marshall Lake and just west of State Road 451 to Royal Oak Homes, which outbid two other homebuilders for the property, parts of which sit on the lakefront. It likely will become more than 100 new homes.

Kilsheimer pointed out the city got more for the property than its appraised value, $2.8 million, and will put the land back on the city tax roll.

City Council members a decade ago voted unanimously to buy the land even as the city was considering service cuts because of an anticipated loss of property

tax revenue.

City records provide few clues to explain the acquisition except to note the city also was going to make almost the identical amount — $4.85 million — on the sale of 49 acres on nearby Harmon Road to the expressway authority.

“We had the money,” said Apopka commissioner Bill Arrowsmith, who was absent at the meeting during which the purchase was approved.

Looking back, he said he thought the acquisition was smart.

“To me, government has really missed the mark by not land-banking property when they can,” he said.

According to the minutes of the May 16, 2007, council meeting, former Chief Administrative Officer Richard Anderson said the city was “considering adding green areas, and using the property for other uses rather than residential in the future.”

But the property was never developed into a park nor opened to the general public over the past decade.

At the time of the purchase, Apopka was concerned about a possible loss of property tax revenue.

The Legislature was considering a tax reform plan — which later passed — that would impose $15.6 billion in property tax cuts on Florida cities and counties.

Apopka lost about $650,000.

“We haven’t left any stone unturned,” Anderson told the Apopka Chief for a story on how the city was coping with the anticipated tax revenue loss.

Giora “Gary” Singer, one of the former owners of the Marshall Lake land, said he had intended to build homes on the property when his firm, Vick’s Landing LLC, acquired it in 2005 for $3.3 million.

But then a broker approached him in 2007, saying the city wanted to buy the property from him. Singer said he didn’t know why.

“That was always a mystery to me,” he said.

Singer said he and his partners agreed to sell the land because the Central Florida housing market had started to collapse and they feared they might get stuck with a large bank loan for the property.

He said he thought the price was fair, as his group also put money into engineering and design of the site.

According to a pre-sale appraisal, the property was valued in 2007 at $4.97 million by Clayton, Roper & Marshall, a national appraisal firm with an office in Orlando.

Anderson did not respond to calls seeking comment on the issue.

Former city commissioner Kathy Till said she couldn’t recall details of the purchase. Two other commissioners, Billie Dean, who is still on the council, and Marilyn McQueen, also didn’t respond to calls.

McQueen was voted out of office in 2014.

The council’s fifth member at the time was longtime former Mayor John Land, who died Nov. 22, 2014, at 94.

The Harmon Road property was used by the expressway authority to extend State Road 414.

In February, before Apopka declared the Marshall Lake property to be surplus, current City Council members asked City Administrator Glenn Irby about the pros and cons of selling.

“We, as a staff, don’t believe we need this property for any good or general purpose,” Irby said. “It’s best to put it back on the tax rolls. If anything it will [generate] more revenue because of the taxes.”

Royal Oak Homes, the winning bidder, developed Breckenridge, a neighborhood south of the property, while Maronda Homes is building a residential neighborhood just north of the site.