Two Multi-Million-Dollar School Board Land Deals Questioned

MINNEOLA, FL-School board officials in Lake and Osceola County today may wish they had also taken courses in commercial real estate along with their traditional reading, writing and arithmetic programs. Two land deals in their separate jurisdictions have left them frustrated, brokers following the unusual sequence of events tells GlobeSt.com.

In Minneola, where the Lake County board urgently wants to build a new high school and middle school in the south end of the county, the board has approved a $3.5-million contract with former county commissioner Claude Smoak to buy his 110-acre tract for $32,000 per acre or 73 cents per sf.

The only problem with that deal is that the board previously also approved a nearly $3.5-million contract with Orlando lawyer John Lowndes to buy his 115-acre spread for $30,000 an acre or 69 cents per sf. Although the Lowndes land price is lower, the board has found road access problems with the tract–problems that would take about $14 million to correct, school officials confirm.