GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Ginn Buys 1,190 Acres for 20 Cents Per SF

ORLANDO-Ginn Development Co., already planning or starting to build an estimated $3 billion worth of mixed-use projects in Central Florida, has closed a deal on still another proposed venture in south Lake County, 30 miles west of Downtown Orlando.

Developer Bobby Ginn is paying meat products manufacturer Lykes Brothers Inc. and Hyponex Corp., both of Tampa, FL, $10.6 million or $8,908 per acre (20 cents per sf) for 1,190 acres at Montverde, FL. Ginn plans to develop a 500-home, two-golf course community with a buildout value of at least $75 million, local brokers following the project tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

Ginn is paying more per sf for its rural dirt than the Pritzker family of Chicago, owners of the Hyatt hotel chain, is paying the city of Orlando for 1,093 prime acres at the closed Orlando Naval Training Center in one of the most desirable commercial/residential locations in Orlando.

Pritzker’s development division, headed by Penny Pritzker, is paying Orlando $7.54 million or $6,898 per acre (16 cents per sf), as GlobeSt.com previously reported. The city, in turn, is giving Pritzker a total economic incentives package valued at $122 million over 20 years. Pritzker’s Baldwin Park project broke ground last month.

“If you buy the dirt right, you can plan almost any multi-million-dollar project in a good location and still be assured you will end up with a profit,” Dean Fritchen, senior associate, Arvida Commercial Real Estate Services Inc., Winter Park, FL, tells GlobeSt.com. “The trick is in buying the dirt at the lowest possible price.”

Ginn hasn’t set a ground-breaking date for his Pine Island project in Lake County and hasn’t disclosed who is designing its golf courses. Ginn had initially planned 800 single-family and multifamily units, three golf courses and an undetermined amount of commercial and retail.

The developer dropped the commercial/retail component after area residents complained to elected officials that burgeoning traffic from the commercial/retail component on County Road 455 would create uncontrollable road hazards.

In Osceola County near Walt Disney World’s Celebration community, 20 miles south of Downtown Orlando, Ginn anticipates breaking ground in December on Reunion Resort & Club, a planned 2,129-acre development designed for 3,500 multifamily and single-family residential units; 2,000 hotels rooms; and three golf courses.

Ginn couldn’t be reached at GlobeSt.com’s publication deadline to learn whether the project is on schedule or has been revised. The original project will have an estimated buildout value of at least $558 million, construction industry estimators familiar with comparable projects tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

On his Greeneway development proposal south of Orlando International Airport, Ginn and his backers plan 3.5 million sf of office; one million sf of industrial; 450,000 sf of retail/restaurant/commercial; 3,000 hotel rooms; and 1,200 multifamily and single-family residential units.

At the 1,209-acre Eagle Creek undertaking off Narcoosee Road (Country Road 15) in south Orlando, also near the airport, Ginn and London-based Emerson International Inc. jointly plan 2,850 multifamily and residential units; 150,000 sf of retail and service center space; 50,000 sf of office and at least one 18-hole golf course.