The City Council voted 3-1 at its Wednesday, May 3, meeting to approve a $3.2-million offer from Royal Oak Homes – the top bidder – for the sale of the 103-acre Marshall Lake site.
City Commissioner Billie Dean was absent.
The other two bids were from ZDA Land Investments with $3,000,001 and CalAtlantic Homes with $3 million. If CalAtlantic had won the bid and developed the property with more than 150 homes, it would have paid the city $15,000 per additional home and $5,000 per lakefront home.
Because of new planning efforts, the City Council declared two properties as surplus on February 1: the Marshall Lake site, a nearly 103-acre property located south of Marshall Lake and west of S.R. 451; and the almost 8.5-acre parcel located at the southeast corner of North Park Avenue and East Sandpiper Road.
The Marshall Lake site has been appraised at $2,812,500. The North Park Avenue/East Sandpiper Road property is worth $1,267,500, according to the appraiser.
Three different bids were proposed for the Marshall Lake site, but there was none for the North Park Avenue/East Sandpiper Road parcel, said City Community Development Director Jim Hitt.
The city plans to request bids again for the latter property, Hitt said.
Once the sale is completed, both of these sites would go be able to go back on the tax rolls and could be developed.
City Commissioner Doug Bankson asked about Marshall Lake property’s actual cost when the city purchased it, adding that it was $5 million. Hitt confirmed that $5 million was the transaction price, but doesn’t know if that was also the appraised value. The property was purchased around 2007.
Bankson was the only one who voted against the offer because, he said, he’d like to see more research.
Learn more about what happened at the May 3 City Council meeting in the Friday, May 5, issue of The Apopka Chief.
