New $40 Million Offer For OLF-8 From Tampa Real Estate Firm

August 10, 2023

Escambia County has received a new $40 million offer for the OLF-8 site from a Tampa real estate firm, but it’s going to need some work.

The Eisenhower Property Group submitted the $40 million offer for 540 acres of  OLF on Nine Mile Road. The county was originally selling 540 acres, but the county commission has indicated the desire to hold back about 250 acres for job creation.

“I see some issues with the offer, chief among them is the guidance that the BCC already gave signalling that we will reserve 250 acres for job creation,” Commissioner Jeff Bergosh said. “I would expect that this offer will have to be re-tooled.”

Eisenhower’s offer was a simple three-page document without great detail. They are offering $1 million in earnest money, plus an extra $100,000 deposit if the closing date is extended for 30 days.

The offer does not mention the OLF-8 Master Plan, but Eisenhower is requesting that the county “cooperate fully” with rezoning efforts, Comprehensive Plan amendments and form a community development district.

The Eisenhower offer has a deadline of August 31.

D.R. Horton had offered $42 million for the full acreage, but recently dropped their offer to $24.1 million for 297 acres. D.R. Horton proposed to use 99 acres for commercial use including restaurants, retail, offices, medical and a town center. Their plan also shows 170 acres with 1,133 residential units, including 360 townhomes and 336 apartments.

Bergosh said he expects “several more” offers on the property in the coming weeks.

A recent unrelated press release states “Eisenhower Property Group (EPG), headquartered in Tampa, Fla., is a multi-faceted real estate firm that acquires, oversees, and manages the development of mixed-use projects with a heavy focus on residential. Founded in 2004, EPG is now one of Florida’s largest firms with approximately 17,000 residential units currently under development across the state. EPG is committed to preserving the land in a way that leverages the natural beauty of lakes, creeks, and open spaces, while combining it with planned amenities that appeal to a Florida lifestyle.”

Comments

16 Responses to “New $40 Million Offer For OLF-8 From Tampa Real Estate Firm”

  1. Tammy on August 15th, 2023 5:49 am

    First, this land is not owned by private citizens. The county, i.e., politicians spent taxpayer dollars to purchase this land. So, we the people should have a say in what is done wirh the land. Not politicians making backroom deals with developers to line their pockets wirh taxpayer money. To simplify the point so everyone gets educated to the scam. Politicians use taxpayer dollars to buy the land. Developers pay the county for the land. The politicians convince the citizens that they are looking out for what is best for ‘our community ‘. The county gives the developers a deal on property taxes while they own and develop the land. Almost no taxes per acre. They build the houses. We taxpayers pay the impact fees. New roads, widening roads, traffic lights, colverts, retention ponds. We pay for the flooding issues once the houses are built because they don’t consider the land slopes they make when they haul in all of the dirt and don’t consider the flooding issues they create. Because ultimately the citizens that buy the house have to pay for the issues created by builders that build poor quality expensive homes and take the money and run. Until the flooding issues get so bad, people living there complain to the point that the politicians spend taxpsyer money to try to fix the flooding issues, then and it has already happened, the politicians spend taxpayer dollars to buy the homes and desyroy them because of the flooding issues over and over. The individual that buys the home gets hit with extremely high property tax bills. No sweetheart deal for them. I was ignorant to this scam and fraud until I accidentally discovered what was going on. I started doing research. I educated myself. Please everyone investigate yourself. We must stop this.
    I was born in Pensacola. If I or other people like me wanted to live on top of other people we would move to other places that have already been turned into urban, filthy, scummy, diseased areas. We must stop these criminals from destroying our home. Politicians are already trying to put a sewer treatment plant on the Cooper Basin in Milton on the land next to the BlackwaterRiver. The land was purchased with taxpayer dollars. Now the Milton politicians are trying to use more taxpayer dollars to build the sewer treatment plant. On the Blackwater River. Please go to Save the blackwater.com to read about it. Do you really want to let them pollute our beautiful Blackwater river too. We have to stand up against this and make our voices heard. It’s our children and grandchildren that will suffer the most. Bigger is not always better. Progress is not always a good thing.

  2. ZZbottom on August 13th, 2023 6:26 pm

    @Dave Lamb, she’s retired.

  3. MR REALITY on August 12th, 2023 12:06 am

    Why is Bergosh the lead on this deal and why does he keep commenting on it?

  4. dave lamb on August 11th, 2023 1:01 am

    @ Bonnie, I agree.
    @ RW, Italked personally with Debbie Calder, who has since moved to corporate headquarters. I talked to Florida Dean of Extension Services, and they did what they wanted to without listening to the people. That lead us to OLF- 8 and the situation now.

  5. Concerned in Cantonement on August 10th, 2023 7:49 pm

    To all you people complaining about development: What was on the land where your house is before your house was built? What was on the land where the grocery store you shop at before it was built? Calm down and consider acting like you’ve been alive for more than a few years.

  6. tg on August 10th, 2023 5:03 pm

    Given enough time the County will screw this up.

  7. Steve on August 10th, 2023 3:47 pm

    our roads are stressed without improvements ; instead they get more stress .

  8. Not You on August 10th, 2023 10:55 am

    @Speak up: The whole purpose of the land swap with the Navy was for the County to sell the OLF to developers.

  9. Bonnie Exner on August 10th, 2023 9:55 am

    My only comment is MATT LANGLY BELL would roll over in his grave if he knew what was happening to his beloved property!

  10. Beluah Res on August 10th, 2023 8:59 am

    Bergosh basically states they are not accepting this offer since it has an expiration of Aug 31 and he said he is expecting several more offers in the upcoming weeks…weeks…Is “needs work” code for “you forgot my check with the offer”?

  11. EMD on August 10th, 2023 8:34 am

    Why don’t you greedy land grabbers just keep on ruining the world that God made in favor of the kind of world that makes you rich enough to keep building and ruining it for most of us.

  12. John Connor on August 10th, 2023 7:49 am

    I’ll toss in one other note. NO COMPANY WANTS JUST 240 ACRES , I can’t believe Escambia county elected these people. They want the whole property. Sell it all and stop going back on deals it looks very bad to other companies that may want to invest in Escambia county. #veryunprofessionalatEscambiacounty.com New website you should use.

  13. RW on August 10th, 2023 7:45 am

    John you are right .. I talked to the head man at NAVY FED years ago he did not like the way escambia county did after they brought ALL those JOBS

  14. Bob on August 10th, 2023 7:22 am

    @Speak up

    I don’t like your house color. You need to repaint it green.

    Sure, it might be inconvenient for you, but what about the people in this community that like green houses? Shouldn’t they have a day in what you do with your property?

    No? That’s dumb?

    Then why do you feel entitled to tell other people what to do with their land?

  15. Speak up before they destroy our way of life on August 10th, 2023 6:41 am

    Other than farmland, what part of Escambia County needs anything that requires 500+ acres? If housing for PRIMARY residences is in such dire straits, then please go vertical in other areas. Yes, it would impact travel and burden some public utilities but at least it isn’t gobbling up the open spaces many of us love. I am convinced every one of these large developers (lately all coming from South Florida) will continue to try to acquire large chunks of land followed by using every ethical and unethical means to get public officials to give them variances to do exactly what they want and the current public officials will GIVE it to them. So, why do we have restrictions in the first place?

  16. John Connor on August 10th, 2023 6:25 am

    No need to worry if you live in Beluah. Just remember the people who lead this county and just give them enough time they will screw anything up. Nothing will come to Beluah, no Costco, no Chili’s, no shopping, and diffently no jobs! At best in 15 years it will be a failed commerce park with very expensive apartments. I can see the future. I am still wondering how they even landed Navy Federal to be honest. But I guess a broken clock gets something right twice a day.