Despite midnight discussions and multiple multi-million dollar bid increases from potential buyers, the Escambia Board of County Commissioners decided they needed more time to determine their wants, needs and goals with the sale of the property known as Navy Outlying Field 8, or OLF 8, in Beulah, before a developer was selected to move forward with the 540-acre mixed-use project.
However, the commissioners appeared to have narrowed their choice to two bidders: Beulah Town Center, LLC, represented by developer Fred Hemmer and his partner Metro Development Group, a company specializing in the development of residential lands and planned communities in Central Florida and Escambia County administers. ; and Tri-W Development, a subsidiary of Jim Wilson and Associates, a Montgomery, Alabama-based commercial real estate development company working with Chad Henderson, founder and CEO of Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate, and former mayor and real estate agent of Pensacola developer Ashton Hayward will purchase and develop OLF 8.
Beulah Town Center has been trying to buy all or part of OLF 8 for a year, and at Thursday night’s board meeting they increased their final offer for the entire 540 acres from $42.5 million to $43.5.
A third bid for the property from Beulah Ranch, a company represented by Pensacola real estate broker Ryan Bell, was increased from $30 million to $40 million but did not attract as much interest from the board.
After listening to multiple presentations from the developers, as well as comments from Beulah residents and other local leaders, newly elected Escambia County District 1 Commissioner Steve Stroberger made a motion to begin contract negotiations with the Beulah Town Center.
Stroberger represents the area where the property is located, and although Mike Kohler, chairman of the Escambia board of directors, supported Stroberger’s motion, the effort failed because no one else supported him, and Strobeger withdrew his motion.
Indecisiveness: Escambia County is considering three major bids for OLF 8. What’s included in the offers?
“I’ve always said I want someone to develop that thing so I want to leave Perdido Key and move to Beulah, and I think you guys can make me move to Beulah,” Stroberger said of the Beulah Town Center presentation.
All three developers presented plans consistent with the DPZ Master Plan for the property, which includes a mix of commercial and residential development and a town center with amenities within walking distance such as shops, restaurants and other amenities. While Stroberger wanted staff to begin negotiating a possible sale with Beulah Town Center, Commissioner Barry strongly supported Tri-W Development because he believed they could be more effective in bringing businesses and jobs to the northern part of OLF 8.
He made a motion to have the staff begin contract negotiations with Tri-W, but the motion was denied a second one.
While the commissioners said all three offers were “good,” job creation was a big priority for Commissioners Barry and Lumon May, who have been on the board since the plan to buy OLF 8 was launched years ago. They pointed to the commissioners’ original intent. Acquiring the property was intended to create jobs, but the board compromised on mixed-use because that’s what residents of the fast-growing community wanted.
“We settled for a mixed-use project and that’s fine, but the high-paying seats on the north half of it are important to me,” Barry said. “Job creation is a huge factor, especially in non-retail and service jobs. Working with a developer that has the capacity, and they have the intent to actually close and then that they have the relationships to put well-paid butts in seats on those acres.
That’s why the county decided last year to withhold about 270 acres of OLF 8 property and develop it as “light industrial.” The board has since decided that it is open to selling all of the property, but if they do, they still want that portion of the property to be developed for job creation, whether it be the economic development department of the is the province that does this, the chosen developer or a combination thereof. of both.
The Pensacola-Escambia Promotion and Development Commission (PEDC) marketed the property to attract several businesses, but the confidentiality of the process created resistance from some neighbors in Beulah, who feared that the businesses PEDC wanted would not be of the kind. according to them, employers with higher wages would be in accordance with the DPZ Master Plan.
Chief Business Development Officer for FloridaWest Economic Development Alliance Anita Andrews spoke with commissioners Thursday morning at the Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting to give them a chance to hear from the developers bidding on the project, as well as other experts in the field of economic development.
The Business Alliance, an organization of local business owners, operators and managers who meet quarterly to discuss community impact issues in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, is advocating that the light industrial portion of the master plan – 271 hectares – is transferred to the PEDC. .
Stressing the importance of creating jobs in the northern part of the property, Andrews said the province has “clean” manufacturing in the area, such as a pet pharmaceutical company, and that bringing in and expanding similar businesses will create more better-paying jobs and stimulate the local economy.
“I have presented OLF 8 to multiple potential prospects from aerospace to manufacturing,” Andrews said. “And the hindering aspect of OLF 8 is the lack of infrastructure. We worked with staff to determine where utilities are currently located and what improvements are needed. So as soon as we can work together to get the infrastructure in order, the companies will come.”
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Barry and others said Triumph dollars could be used to build much-needed and expensive infrastructure on the site, but only as long as the site was owned by the county or a public entity. That led to a debate and even some confusion over whether the province should withhold the 270 hectares to qualify for grant money for infrastructure construction or sell it all and have the developer work with the PEDC to bring in businesses to fetch.
Ultimately, the chairman decided to postpone the decision until the board had more time to discuss it.
“I’m sorry, guys,” Mike Kohler, Escambia’s board chairman, said to the developers and their partners attending the meeting. “I wanted to go there, but there’s no appetite to get there tonight. Maybe it’s because we’ve been here for a long time, but I’d like to put it back on the agenda at the next meeting, guys. to think about what we’ve been talking about, but I promise I’ll bring it up at every meeting until we resolve this.
This article originally appeared in Pensacola News Journal: Escambia receives multiple $40 million bids for OLF 8, but none are selected
