Land near airport zoned for subdivision sells for $1.25 million

Ormond Beach Observer
Real Estate

A subdivision built on the land will have to be spread out, representing both a risk and an advantage for developers.

BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER

Undeveloped land totaling 156 acres, located at Pineland Trail and Airport Road, has sold for $1.25 million.

The property, known as the Pineland subdivision, has been entitled for 192 single-family homes.

Fred Share was a member of the previous ownership group, which had the property reclaimed by the bank after the economy collapsed. Like much of the land in the area, the Pineland subdivision is a wetland, and so Share and his partners needed permits from the Saint Johns River Water Management District, among others, before developing.

That permitting process held up the works, but Share, now part of a new ownership group, Ormond Pineland LLC, of Holly Hill, reclaimed ownership of the land in this most recent transaction. But construction is no longer the goal.

“We just negotiated a purchase and we’re just going to be holding it to resell it,” Share said. “Whether its a good a price or not will be determined in the future, (but) we thought we had a good deal.”

Chris Butera, the investment associate at NAI Realvest who brokered the deal, said the transaction came out to about $6,500 per lot, which is in line with similar undeveloped plots of land, ranging between $3,500 and $10,000 per lot.

“There’s a time where you won’t see a return,” Butera said. “It’s going to be a waiting game.”

Butera said the property was put on the market in the summer, and Share’s group, which includes members of the previous ownership group, expressed interest after several months.

But any development on the land will have its restrictions. A subdivision, for example — which is what the land is currently zoned for — would need to be more spread out than compact, which can either represent an advantage or a risk to developers.

A subdivision built on the land would need to have more roads with homes on only one side, known as single-loaded roads, causing the development to expand over the entire property.

While that may increase development costs, Share said it would also mean more privacy for homeowners, which would increase the value of the lots.

“There's nothing holding it back from being developed,” Share said. “It’s all about timing. It seems like things are starting to pick up.”