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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana)
New player in North Port
There's a big deal going on at North Port's Thomas Ranch.
Tuscano LLC, a limited liability company associated with Jacksonville developer Stokes & Co. LLC, purchased 2,398.5 acres in the ranch from Stanley Thomas' Fourth Quarter Properties and two personal trusts. The total purchase price according to three separate deeds is $110 million.
So far, Tuscano is mum on plans for the property. Hugh Connerty Jr., manager of Tuscano, according to the Florida Division of Corporations and who works for Stokes & Co., said he could not comment. Calls to a representative for Fourth Quarter Properties were not returned.
Chester Stokes Jr., president of Stokes & Co., has been an active builder in the Jacksonville market for at least the past decade. Stokes & Co. is best known for its upscale residential developments, which include Marsh Landings, Deercreek Country Club and Orange Park Country Club.
It also looks likely that Stokes & Co. will bring in another homebuilder partner; Tuscano took out a $135 million mortgage with Pulte Home Corp. and another $135 million mortgage with Deutsche Bank Americas. Media representatives for Pulte did not return calls asking about the relationship between the two companies.
Earlier this month, DiVosta Homes started clearing land for the first development in Thomas Ranch, the 1,869-home IslandWalk project, located south of U.S. 41 and east of River Road. Home construction in the DiVosta development is slated to start early next year. The entire Thomas Ranch is set for development in a total of eight villages, which will also include two fire stations, a police station and a city hall annex.
The city of North Port annexed the 7,800-acre-tract in 2002.
How high can they go?
Prices for condos in downtown Fort Myers keep rising with no end in sight.
"We're getting numbers that a year ago never seemed possible," says Robert Kohn, president of Yonkers, N.Y.-based Homes for America. Kohn has completed one high-rise tower downtown called Beau Rivage and has three others in various stages of construction and planning. When Kohn started selling the Beau Rivage tower in 2001, prices for condos started at $270 per square foot. Today, he's getting $425 per square foot for residences at the nearby Monaco, a 57% increase.
"It's pretty heady stuff," he says.
The big question now is how much more people are willing to spend. There is a glass ceiling, and that's probably when condos reach over the $1 million mark, predicts Kohn. Currently, the most expensive residences at the Monaco are just shy of that mark.
LETTER
More capital spending is needed
Dear Editor:
Regarding the Sept. 9-15 "Coffee Talk" article, "Is this moratorium a building moratorium?" ...
The following is Sarasota County Commissioner Jon Thaxton's quote at the Sept. 6 County Commission meeting that I obtained from the board records tape: "I would probably equate it to at least a temporary moratorium on new development in the comprehensive plan, and I don't think that's a bad idea at all."
My interpretation of the word "it," based on what he had said leading up to this quote, is that it was a reference to infrastructure planning.
The words "at least a temporary moratorium" could reasonably be interpreted to be a suggestion by Commissioner Thaxton of either a subsequent permanent moratorium on density/intensity increases in the comprehensive plan or could also have been reasonably interpreted, as I initially did, to mean going beyond a moratorium on just the comprehensive plan densities/intensities to a building moratorium.
Of course, Commissioner Thaxton has since clarified that at least the latter was not his intended meaning, and we should all be thankful for that given the serious economic and fiscal consequences that would surely result.
To be perfectly clear, an email he sent out later that day stated, "What I advocated at today's public hearing was a 'moratorium' on expanding the development capacity (possibly excluding legitimate affordable housing initiatives) of our Comprehensive Plan." He further stated, "I suggested that infrastructure needed to implement the Comp Plan should be included in the Plan."
We concur that more infrastructure capital spending is needed, both to support higher densities/mixed use and reduce per-unit housing costs. But recognize that pre-existing infrastructure deficiencies, which still exist, must be funded by existing residents using our growing bonding capacity to speed up the process, and with those caveats, couldn't agree more.
At today's average price of new homes, there's no question that new housing, even without counting it's per-unit share of non-residential fiscal/economic benefits, is paying its way on a present value basis; and that's what truly matters. If government continues to choose not to spend the fiscal surpluses created by new development sufficiently on infrastructure, it does not mean that new development is not paying its way.
When 78 million baby boomers make future growth more than a reasonable expectation, it is incumbent upon local government to borrow to stay ahead of the game. So too, we must recognize that the new growth, with its significantly higher average property values, will pay back the bonds in much greater proportion than existing development and will continue to produce an ongoing annuity to the tax rolls that effectively subsidizes existing property taxpayers.
Jay Brady, AICP, Executive Director, Gulf Coast Builders Exchange
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