Beulah Town Center offers $25 million for OLF 8. Is it enough to seal a deal?

Beulah Town Center LLC has revised its offer for the property known as Navy Outlying Field 8, or OLF 8, in Beulah, including raising its proposed purchase price to $25 million for 290 acres of the more than 530-acre property.

Beulah Town Center developer Fred Hemmer said he and Escambia County staff had another meeting to discuss their offer and the company has accordingly made changes to the sales agreement, including offering more money and building a road through the development.

However, for Hemmer the deal hinges on Escambia County rezoning the property because current zoning is problematic for any developer trying to follow the DPZ Master Plan , Hemmer said.

The master plan includes a mix of commercial and residential development and a town center with amenities within walking distance like shops, restaurants and other services. Due to the zoning issues Beulah Town Center is reluctant to put up a non-refundable deposit, or “hard money,” that some on the Board of County Commissioners say they want from a buyer.

“A zoning overlay was created when the DPZ Master Plan was adopted by the county and it defined specific zoning for different portions of the 500 acres,” Hemmer said. “It includes about one third of the area designated as civic, which is schools, government buildings, things like that, that have no value to a town center. It also includes 50 acres of industrial that would compete with them on their own industrial property and doesn't sit in a town center. You can't follow that DPZ plan with a town center with 50 acres of industrial right there.”

The DPZ Master Plan was designed for all 530 acres, but last year the board decided to keep the remaining 250 acres for job creation and help control future use of the property due to Florida’s Live Local Act that went into effect last July.

Previously: Has Escambia finally found the right buyer for OLF 8? We should know by next month

The law provides a statewide workforce housing strategy aimed at making more affordable housing available, in part by changing the level of control local governments have in approving affordable housing developments. It would also allow commercial property owners, for example, to build apartments there without zoning approval from the county.

Hemmer explained that 50 of the 290 acres the company is offering to buy are zoned light industrial, which has no value to Beulah Town Center LLC, and could also be used for low-income, high-density high-rise housing due to Florida’s Live Local Act.

“Whoever buys that land and gets those 50 acres, with Florida’s Live Local Act, you can put up the maximum units that the county has in their code of 25 per acre,” Hemmer said. “You can go as high as the tallest building within 1 mile, which means the Navy Federal buildings, which are six or seven stories, so you could have 1,250 affordable apartments on those 50 acres with a series of tall buildings.”

Hemmer said it’s unlikely neighbors in the area would want that and it’s not the kind of development they want adjacent to the Beulah Town Center development. He said it could also be an issue for the county’s light industrial job development plans for the remaining acreage and overall, as it’s not consistent with the intent of the DPZ Master Plan, which he said Beulah Town Center wants to follow.

Escambia County District 1 Commissioner Jeff Bergosh represents the area where OLF 8 is located. He campaigned on moving the development forward and initially supported Beulah Town Center’s interest in the property especially because of their commitment to following the master plan.

While he is excited to see their offer come up to $25 million, a price he and other commissioners wanted at the minimum for the property, he was concerned about the “ping-pong” of negotiations, saying the revised offer still included some legal language and other contractual obligations they had been through before with Beulah Town Center and wanted taken out.

“I want to be efficient,” said Bergosh. “I want to get things done. I want to be effective, but if we're continuously going back and rehashing things that we should have already solved, that's just not moving forward. People aren't serious, in my opinion."

Hemmer said those changes have already been noted and removed and the latest revised offer was sent to the county Friday afternoon. He said county leaders have also often been either difficult to reach or unresponsive in their efforts to negotiate , concerns he also expressed to Bergosh.

Hemmer said any hard money they offer is conditional on the county addressing the zoning issues over the civic and light industrial portions of the property and ultimately could be a deal breaker for Beulah Town Center.

“We'll put up the money, but it's not at risk,” Hemmer said. “If they won't do that, that's a point that we won't give in on.”

Related: Bidder for OLF 8 property previously awarded $40 million in Escambia County contracts

There have been eight offers so far for the OLF 8 property, including one in April from Pensacola businessmen Cliff Mowe and Ryan Chavers who offered $22.5 million for 290 acres.

Chavers is a client of board chair Steven Barry, who has a private financial planning practice. Chavers Construction has also done close to 40 million dollars in business with Escambia County over the past 13 years. Barry has stated he thought the Mowes/Chavers is more in line with what the board wanted, in part due to the "hard money" included with their offer.

Bergosh said the county could receive a ninth offer during the week of May 20 ^th from another builder.

“I'm not at liberty to say who the company is, but they're massive and they've done a lot of work in the southeast, and they're going to be in town on Tuesday,” Bergosh said. “I’ve got my fingers crossed.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Beulah Town Center offers $25 million for OLF 8. Is it enough to seal a deal?