Highlands Properties Starting To Sell

Two of the top three land deals in Highlands County last year were groves sold to Premier Citrus, a company that has addresses in Vero Beach and Lake Placid.

According to TCPalm.com, Premier Citrus also bought 2,000 acres of citrus groves in Indian River County for $15 million in November 2008 from agricultural land giant A. Duda & Sons. The two Indian River County parcels, one for 1,545 acres and another for 432 acres, are located west of Interstate 95 on State Road 60, several miles past the Vero Fashion Outlets.

State records say Vero Beach resident Kevin Bynum owns Premiere Citrus. The private company already has citrus groves and a packinghouse on the Treasure Coast.

Highlands County records show that on Jan. 11, Premier Citrus LLC paid $9.12 million to Carl M. and Betty Wilburn for acreages at 2280 Bishop Dairy Road, Sebring; 3274 and 3288 Auburn St., Lorida; 2121, 2205, 2233, 2405, and 2413 Hicks Road, Lorida; and 15711 Arbuckle Creek Road, Sebring.

Also on Jan. 11, Premier paid $5.12 million to Clark and Tammy Paterson, William Chavis and others for an acreage at 17515 Boney Road in Sebring.

The second largest deal was Publix's purchase of Albertson's, a $6.7 million acquisition completed in September. Publix later opened a second Sebring supermarket at 3610 U.S. 27 North.

But, cautioned commercial real estate broker Greg Karlson, Publix bought Albertson's in several markets, so the actual value of the Sebring property may be greater or smaller.

Two mobile parks were among the top 10: an RV park at Lake Bonnett, along County Road 17 near Powerline Road, and a 66-lot mobile home park at Hammock Estates. The mobile home park brought more, since it has permanent population, said Karlson.

A $2 million deal on Feb. 22 involved Sun 'N Lake of Sebring. SNL Development LLC and NRPI transferred title of 665 properties to Sun 'N Lake of Sebring Improvement District. SNL general manager Al Grieshaber, who was out of town when contacted Friday, said he could not recall the deal or the details.

At this time last year, there was great speculation about Target, Applebee's and Carraba's coming to Highlands County. That isn't likely to happen soon, Karlson said.

"You'll see more stores go dark, during this correction," Karlson predicted. Circuit City is closing around the end of February.

"Restaurants feed off the anchors, and the (large retailers) aren't doing well," Karlson said. "My gut feeling is that (restaurateurs) are not excited about coming."

However, he predicted, if the ethanol plants are built, retail jobs will be replaced with better-paying manufacturing and agriculture jobs.

He is seeing signs of recovery in the residential housing industry.

"People are buying now to use it for themselves," Karlson said. "No one is buying to hold."

In other words, speculators are staying out.