Siegel Pitches Cypress Plan to Gov. Bush

ORLANDO-Showing his civic consciousness, David A. Siegel tells Gov. Jeb Bush he is ready to sign a 99-year lease with the state and put $5 million into a maintenance bank escrow account to operate the recently closed Cypress Gardens attraction in Winter Haven, FL. Siegel, the owner of Florida’s largest privately held timeshare development company, says he would continue to back the venture even if becomes a perennial losing proposition for him.

Bush and his cabinet meet Friday to decide on buying the 67-year-old, 223-acre property from former Anheuser-Busch executives Larry Maxwell and William Reynolds and their investors who haven’t formally announced they are even ready to sell the prime location, located 60 miles south of Downtown Orlando.

Nobody is talking price yet. But all of the players are aware of the Polk County Property Appraiser’s most recent assessment of $12 million or about $40,000 per acre (92 cents per sf). However, industrial brokers, familiar with the park’s commercial development potential, tell GlobeSt.com some of the lakefront dirt and interior land could go for a combined average of $300,000 per acre ($6.89 per sf), or a total $90 million.