OIA land sale sets stage for home growth

Orlando International Airport’s long-anticipated sale of vacant land could lead to thousands of new homes in southeast Orlando.

Among provisions, the monumental deal turns over about 780 acres to Tavistock Development Company LLC, creator of nearby Lake Nona real estate. In return, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority is pocketing at least $60.8 million and a Tavistock agreement that nobody will make a stink about jets roaring over backyard pools.

“We want something compatible,” airport director Phil Brown said of a lucrative sale structured for what had become surplus land. “We also want a clear acknowledgment that there is an airport next door.”

The authority’s unprecedented transaction may provide significant lift for the city’s growth around the air-

port and beyond; that southeast sector of Orlando is expected to swell by mid-century to nearly 50,000 residents, or as many as live now in Orange County’s second-biggest city, Apopka.

The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority approved the sale last month without comment.

That was nearly a technicality as momentum for a transaction had been emerging publicly in various stages for years. There are still hundreds of acres of additional surplus property to be sold or undertaken as a commercial venture by the aviation authority.

The sale to Tavistock involves land bought nearly three decades ago for airport growth.

In 1989, the aviation authority acquired 2,098 acres for $12.4 million from the Poitras family. The acreage borders Osceola County a few miles south of the airport’s campus.

The aviation authority had two needs for the Poitras property. It would mine thousands of tons of dirt and sand there to build the airport’s fourth runway.

The authority also would designate some of the Poitras acreage for permanent environmental protection as compensation for hundreds of acres of wetlands destroyed by runway construction.

Even then, however, some environmentalists were dubious about the conservation value of Poitras property; it appeared increasingly as a remnant of nature amid urban encroachment.

In the late 1990s, the city annexed the tract, nearly 15 miles southeast of downtown, labeling it for urban use.

The land has never been given a zoning designation but was marked by the city as within a noisy route of aircraft.

About a decade ago, the aviation authority went to city officials, with plans to pursue Poitras acreage for residential and commercial enterprises.

But the authority found progress would be difficult because of federal rules for airport property.

“They were really limited on what they could do as a developer themselves,” the city of Orlando’s chief planner Elisabeth Dang said.

The authority dropped its efforts as the recession took hold, Deng said.

Last year, the authority signaled that it would resume its quest for Poitras property by selling it, but rather than setting a price, the authority first went in search of a buyer.

Two suitors responded to a request for qualifications, Tavistock and Crescent Communities LLC of Charlotte, N.C.

The aviation authority chose Tavistock because of its previous enterprises in the area and “their development of the Lake Nona Medical Center.”

Orlando’s VA Medical Center and the UCF College of Medicine are about a mile from the land being bought by Tavistock.

The pricing ultimately was based on appraisals.

A Tavistock spokeswoman declined to comment on her company’s ambitions for Poitras acreage.

Documents filed by the company with the city and aviation authority give some sign of what’s to come: 3,196 homes, with many gated and styled after Lake Nona housing.

“Tavistock Development intends to combine the Lake Nona and Poitras Property,” states a Tavistock letter, “to further maximizes synergies between the properties.”

Many regulatory steps are ahead for Tavistock and GOAA, the aviation authority.

Among them, environmental protections for part of the Poitras parcel remain in place, prohibiting development and enforced by state authorities.

Some restrictions previously were lifted, a result of the aviation authority paying millions of dollars for environment enhancements and protections elsewhere.

But there are development prohibitions on approximately 380 acres that Tavistock is buying in addition to the 780 acres for nearly $61 million.

If those restrictions are lifted, Tavistock will pay $85,000 per acre, or nearly as much as for the 780 acres. If they aren’t, the price could be $3,500.

Tavistock appears before the city’s Municipal Planning Board next month as part of seeking zoning and project approvals.

“If Tavistock and GOAA are ready to move, we could do all of this in six months,” said Dang, the city’s chief planner. “A lot of this depends on their timing, more so than ours.”