Top 10 Land Deals Totaled $85 Million

SEBRING - Wal-Mart paid $3 million for its real estate in Avon Park. Sebring Retail Associates spent $6.72 million for the Shopes at Shelby Crossing land.

If that sounds like a lot of money, consider that Wal-Mart counts its monthly earnings in millions of dollars. And Shelby Crossing has Circuit City, Books-A-Million, Michael's, Panera Bread and Ross Dress For Less as its tenants. And in a few months, there will be an Olive Garden.

"McDonald's paid about $250,000 for the outparcel at Sebring Square," said commercial real estate broker Chip Boring with RE/MAX Realty Plus 1. "They're paying for location."

On Jan. 8, 2007, Sebring Retail Associates also sold to Washington Mutual Bank $35.9 million worth of land in the vicinity of Shelby Crossing. There is enough land behind Lowe's and Shelby Crossing for several more large developments like Shelby and Lowe's.

"I'm not surprised. Those are big numbers, no doubt. We're seeing a lot of commercial development," said Property Appraiser Raymond McIntyre. "The big Realtors are doing their homework. They have Highlands County earmarked for growth in the near future."

Boring and another real estate agent have confirmed that Target is looking for a Sebring location. Both brokers said Target is also looking at the area around Ohrt's Mobile Village and Safari Inn. Target Corp. and Ohrt's did not return phone messages Thursday.

But even if Target bought land today, Boring thinks a store wouldn't be built for three years. It would take that long to get county and state approval, he said.

Some of the biggest land deals were for farmland.

"A couple of years ago, people were paying $35,000 to $40,000 an acre for grove property," Boring said.

When the stock market was going down, investors were selling their shares and putting the money in land.

"They were sheltering that money," Boring said. "They wanted to buy something tangible. I told them they paid more than what it was worth, and they didn't care."

Some of them, Boring said, "can't give it away for $20,000 to $25,000 an acre now."

Boring said he's still talking to chain restaurants like Applebee's and Carraba's. Applebee's is interested in the former Ponderosa restaurant, and others are interested in the former Barnhill's.