The former ITT building and property at One Corporate Drive off Palm Coast Parkway has been an albatross around the Flagler County School Board’s neck longer than it’s been beneficial. It continues to be, as the board prepares once again to try to sell it by inviting prospective buyers to bid.
Last year, the board turned down a proposed sale of $1.8 million to the developers of Island Walk, who envisioned a similar development at Corporate Plaza. Three years ago, the board, after a difficult, public haggling session, decided to offer the land and the building (which has since been demolished) for $2.3 million. It got no bids. The building was demolished in April 2016. (“It’s a bad design, bad construction, and it really doesn’t have value for our purposes at this point,” School Board member Andy Dance said at the time, a candid reflection of the board’s irritation with the property.)
The school board bought the old ITT headquarters in 2003 for $3.5 million in what, in retrospect if not even then, was considered a burdensome deal fir the board. In inflation-adjusted dollars, that places the cost of the building at $4.9 million, not including the $200,000 demolition cost. So whatever the board does, it will be selling the property at a huge loss.
The Flagler County Property Appraiser places the 2017 market value of the 7-acre property at $1.37 million, down from $3.3 million in 2013. The board will be paying three appraisers between $1,200 and $1,500 each in the next few weeks to conduct three separate appraisals. The school board will then analyze those numbers and issue a request for proposal, soliciting bids for the property until May 2.
Discussing the proposal Tuesday during a workshop, board members were understandably careful about which way to proceed, and even their administration was divided: the finance department, which is putting the bid proposal together, was proposing to set a minimum bid floor. Kristy Gavin, the school board’s attorney, was recommending against a floor.
“The district intended to give a minimum dollar amount bidders must meet, listed in the bid document,” Patty Wormeck, the district’s finance director, said as she presented the issue alongside Tom Tant, the chief financial officer. If bids come in below that, they’re discarded.
“The school board will set that minimum at their next meeting,” Tant said.
But that gave board members pause, given their recent history of unsuccessful sale attempts.
“Do we taint the process if it’s publicly known what our minimum bid is?” asked Board member Colleen Conklin—the last remaining board member who was on the board at the time of the purchase of the building in 2003, when she was nearing the end of her first term.
“We do not have to give a minimum-bid price. That is your option,” Gavin said. “If you decide you don’t want to do a minimum-bid price you can just have it be—we are placing this out for sale. Because as you’ll recall, the last time we did this we did put a floor minimum-bid price, and we based that a little bit on the appraisals we had gotten but it was also based upon what we deemed to be the value of the property.”
Several parties were interested during the pre-bid meeting during that attempted sale, some even toured the building, since at the time the building was still standing. But in the end, the district did not receive a single bid.
“So at this time it is not my recommendation that you place a floor on it,” Gavin continued. “You merely state that at this time you’ve declared this a surplus property, you’re interested in the sale of the property, you’re accepting the bids. They do not know what the market value is going to be. They need to do their due diligence of whatever the property is going at in that area and then, simultaneous, we will get the market value. Obviously any bids that come in below market value, especially if they’re 5 percent below market value, you wouldn’t even consider those. And then anything that is above or at market value, that is your decision.”
That seemed to sway most board members against a floor bid. “We need to consider all offers,” Board Chairman Trevor Tucker said, though Andy Dance appeared closer to favoring a bid floor.
Due diligence will show that just last October, a 1.6-acre parcel zoned commercial retail, as would be Corporate 1, sold for $2.2 million—the very same price it had previously been sold for, in 2013, and twice the property appraiser’s market value. That parcel is immediately across Corporate One and the eastbound lanes of Palm Coast Parkway. About a block east from Corporate 1, a commercial building on 1.7 acres sold for $3.1 million in April 2016. Otherwise, the area has not been very active on Realtors’ radar.
Whatever course school board members choose, the request for bids will be issued later this month as once again the board attempts to be rid of its albatross.
Steve Naso says
Let the bidding begin. I bid $1
Linze says
$3,000 to tell you what it’s worth, thowing good money away.
Sell to Aldies for another store they want to build in Palm Coast if the city manager will let them.
They stopped them from building a larger store on 100
palmcoastpioneers says
Origins of the Corporate One Building:
August 1976
Mr. and Mrs. George E. Chuddy
28 Lake Drive
Darien,Connecticut 006820
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Chuddy:
Because you have made a commitment in Palm Coast by establishing your home here, we believe you should be aware of an agreement that we recently reached with the Federal Trade Commission.
ITT Community Development Corporation ( ICDC) has signed a Consent Agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concerning the future development of Palm Coast. Signing the agreement does not constitute an admission that any law has been violated, as the agreement itself states. We feel the agreement is important in order to attain our primary goal — the development of Palm Coast as a balanced, well-rounded community.
An important part of the Consent Agreement calls for the execution of plans, within six years, which we believe, in the long run, will be good for Palm Coast. In brief, among other things , we have agreed to the following:
1. A shopping center with at least 400,000 square feet of floor space will be provided.We are already in contact with prospective developers of individual stores, including a supermarket.
2. With appropriate governmental agreement, a traffic interchange on Interstate Highway 95 will be constructed to serve Palm Coast according to plans we submitted to the Florida Department of Transportation in August 1972. ICDC will pay for the interchange as originally designed.
3. An office and research park area will be developed with appropriate roads and utilities to serve it and landscaping to make it an attractive part of Palm Coast. Planning for this already is under way.
4. A multi-purpose office building, with at least 5,000 square feet of floor space, will be constructed for tenants in the office and research park. This structure, also, is under planning.
5. ———–> We will move the headquarters of ICDC to Palm Coast. We plan to be substantial employer contributing much to the economy of Palm Coast and Flagler County.<———————
The agreement also provides for us to restrict our development efforts to 42,000 acres for a period of 15 years ( with possible extension for another five years). This will allow appropriate construction in areas set aside for commercial establishments, light industry, recreation, preservation and conservation and other residential uses. Moreover, during this 15- or 20-year period, sales will be limited to 48,000 registered lots of which over 36,000 already have been sold.
The aforementioned are some of the most important points contained in the Consent Agreement as it affect you and the balanced development of Palm Coast. You will also be interested in knowing of additional projects that we believe further enhance the community.. Here are some examples:
We have donated two acres of land, adjoining the future Emergency Services Building site, to the Palm Coast branch of the YMCA to be used as the location of a Community Activities Center. We will bear the cost of constructing this facility for all community residents and for sharing in operational expenses during its first three years — a gift totaling more than $400,000.
We have provided as a gift a site of 57 acres to the Flagler County School Board for a junior-senior high school. The first class of proud seniors was graduated from Flagler-Palm Coast High School last spring.
We have designated a number of sites for recreation parks, preservation and conservation, and other public areas. One site, in Section 1-A, now is being developed and a paved bicycle path has been constructed. Another bike path, starting near the Yacht Club, is in use. We are working with the Palm Coast Civic Association so that Palm Coast residents can form a legal entity to which we can donate a one-acre site and an Emergency Services Building to house fire and security forces, an ambulance, and facilities for community activities. A preliminary blueprint for the structure has been approved by a committee from the Community.
As you know, we donated a $36,000 pumper fire truck to the Palm Coast Volunteer Fire Department , which will be stationed in the Emergency Services Building..
Palm Coast's first church building, St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church, we dedicated on the morning of July 4. Catholic and Baptist church organizations have purchased sites for their proposed churches. And Temple Beth Shalom is considering building a Synagogue. We at ICDC are very pleased, as we know citizens of Palm Coast are, to witness this growth and progress in the vitally important religious life of our community.
Palm Coast's first financial institution, a branch of the Security First Federal Savings and Loan Association, recently opened for business. We believe others will follow with the growth of the community.
These and many other facilitates will be needed to serve Palm Coast's growing population. And it is growing. During the last nine months, construction of over 200 homes began. We now have over 1,000 people living and enjoying the good life at Palm Coast.
In closing, let me assure you that the ITT Community Development Corporation believes very strongly in the future of Palm Coast and that we are determined that it will grow and progress in a balanced and healthy manner.
Sincerely yours,
Alan Smolen
President.
Should you want to read more about the origins: http://www.palmcoastcorehomes.tripod.com and http://www.palmcoasthistoricresources.tripod.com
James says
@palmcoastpioneers, 404 error on both of those links.
WTF says
WHAT ABOUT A MUCH NEEDED HOMELESS CAMP.
palmcoaster says
We are talking about a 7 acre property public land to be sold no less than 5-6 million I would say as a whole simply because in 2016 a 1.6 acre sold for 2.2 million and a 1.7 acre sold for for 3.1 million also in 2016. What is the rush now about trying to give it away maybe to some of well connected developers? What about sub diveding it in two or 3 parcels of over 2 acres each for a better sale chance…? How much is the cost to sub divide in 3 parcels? Probably will pay up handsomely the additional cost. I will not rely so much on Board member Dance…as he rushes his vote to sell good old Andy.
That past Island Walk developer interested sure wanted a super cheap bargain as those 7 acres should be no less than 1 million an acre in that location, lets do not get ripped off as those are our school taxes that may be given away here, whether Albatros or Anchor. I would like to know how much our property appraiser had valued the two above mentioned parcels that sold in 2016 if our 7 acre parcel is only appraised in 2017 at 1.37 million down from 3.3 million.. based in the value of those two parcels mentioned that sold in 2016 for a price average of a 1.6 million an acre..? Lets do not allow our hard earned school taxes to be given away also an insult to our intelligence!
Diane says
The Board of Ed needs to get out of the business of real estate. we must have endless resources if you can continue to pay for appraisals. The board is advertising to the public that this is a distressed sale . By publicly stating you will take a low price …… Typically a buyer/ investor would never offer a fair market value With knowing this. .
palmcoastpioneers says
@James
Thank You – the correct URL : http://palmcoastcorehomes.tripod.com & http://palmcoasthistoricresources.tripod.com
Thank you again.
Glenn says
Where did all the money come from, the school board? I didn’t know they had investment funds.we elected the board to run our schools not act as an real estate company. Please do what we elected you to do.