An offer of $6.5 million for the two city-owned properties on Harmon Road has changed the already complex situation at Rock Springs Ridge (RSR) where the owner of the closed golf course at RSR has been in talks with the RSR homeowners association for months over the HOA purchasing the closed golf course property.
The city of Apopka has been involved as there was a proposal that the city would be paid $2.4 million by the homeowners association and, in turn, the city would hand over the two parcels on Harmon Road to the Golf Group, which would then deed over the closed golf course property to the RSR homeowners association.
The city of Apopka received the $6.5-million offer from Tony Benge, who is already entrenched in developing a major residential and commercial project in Apopka, on Monday, October 18. Acting as a broker for Standard Investments and Holdings, LLC, an Orlando firm that also lists Benge’s Benge Advisors, LLC, as a manager for Standard Investments, Benge offered $6.5 million for the pair of properties that total about 31 acres. The city-owned property on the south side of Harmon Road is the larger of the two properties at 23 acres, while the property on the north side of Harmon Road is 8 acres.
The Harmon Road property has been talked about as being the linchpin for the deal between the RSR homeowners association and the Golf Group.
The HOA is seeking to gain control of the closed golf course property so that the Golf Group would no longer seek to develop that property.
Mayor Bryan Nelson said he notified Kurt Ardaman, attorney for the RSR homeowners association, about Benge’s offer.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Nelson said he had not heard from Ardaman. The RSR attorney also had not responded to an email requesting comment for this story as of Thursday morning.
The mayor also said that unless the Golf Group and the RSR HOA can come to a different agreement about the deal for the closed golf course property that he will cancel a City Council workshop scheduled for Tuesday, November 2.
Neither Benge nor Ardaman responded to a request for comment for the story.
The full story begins on page 1A of the Friday, October 22, issue of The Apopka Chief.
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