Bidding war: Escambia County gets multiple multi-million-dollar offers on OLF 8

A bidding war on Escambia County's former Naval Outlying Field 8 may be underway as the county weighs competing offers even as commissioners expected more offers to come in before the end of the day Thursday.

Escambia County commissioners decided Thursday to direct county staff to begin negotiations and find out more information about both offers already received for the more than 500-acre Beulah property.

Last week, Texas developer D.R. Horton Inc. made a $33 million cash offer for OLF 8.

Just hours before commissioners were set to discuss the offer Thursday, Alabama developer Breland Companies made a $35 million cash offer. Then, as the meeting began Thursday, D.R. Horton sent the county a counteroffer for $38 million.

"The auction has commenced," Commissioner Jeff Bergosh said.

Both offers on the property are cash offers without the need for any financing. D.R. Horton's offer includes a one-year due diligence period before the deal would close and asked that the county decide to begin negotiations within 10 days and that both parties work together to conclude negotiations within 30 days.

Breland Companies' offer asks for a six-month due diligence period, and that closing occurs at least within six months after the conclusion of the due diligence period. Breland Companies' offer did not include a deadline to begin negotiations but did ask that once they begin they also conclude within 30 days.

Both companies said they would work with the county to meet the requirements of a $14 million Triumph Gulf Coast the county was awarded for building infrastructure on the property.

For saleD.R. Horton offers Escambia County $33 million for OLF 8

Last minute offerEscambia County gets second offer for OLF 8 for $35 million

Triumph Gulf Coast Chairman David Bear was at the Thursday commission meeting and cautioned commissioners that selling the land to a private developer would likely require another review of the Triumph grant.

"The $14 million is for the road and all the infrastructure, stormwater pond, etc., and it's a public project," Bear said. "But if you sell the property, then it becomes privately owned, and we can't pick winners and losers in the state of Florida, and so we can't fund those private projects."

Those details about fulfilling the requirements of Triumph will have to be worked out during the negotiation process commissioners agreed.

Commissioner Robert Bender said he didn't necessarily agree that the entire property should be sold off all at once, but if there was going to be a sale, he would support the developer who adhered to the master plan passed by the board.

"For me, money is not everything, and to have the commitment to the master plan, to look at other developments is important to make sure that it is what's best for our community in the long run," Bender said.

D.R. Horton's offer said it would write its own master plan based on the county's plan, while Breland Companies said it was willing to follow the county's master plan.

Commission Chairman Lumon May said he felt that FloridaWest should be brought in on the negotiations to ensure the project will meet the county's economic development goals, and he wanted more details about how the developer would work with the Triumph grant to build infrastructure on the property.

"In my mind, there's a distinct difference between just selling the dirt without infrastructure versus selling developed land with infrastructure and roads," May said. "Maybe these are great offers on dirt. In my opinion, I doubt you would have my vote if there was $14 million worth of infrastructure there."

Commissioner Mike Kohler said the offers were a great problem for the county to have, but it can't wait too long to act on them.

"The reason it's of essence is all you have to do is look right out at the Tech Park down there," Kohler said, referring to the empty Technology Park in Pensacola that was built with infrastructure to attract high-tech firms but is still empty. "It has been here for 10 years."

Commissioner Jeff Bergosh wanted to set guidelines for what the board was looking for when beginning discussions with the two companies and any other group that makes an offer.

"It might be helpful to have some guideposts on what this board is looking to do. You've heard me passionately express my desire not to go back on the compromise," Bergosh said, referring to the OLF 8 Master Plan, which the board incorporated into its land development code.

The master plan for the property calls for 343 acres to be developed into light industrial or commercial properties while 196 acres are set aside for mixed-use development, including an area for a town center and a new school. The plan also includes design standards for construction at the site, which specify how roads and buildings on the site must look.

Development of the plan was often contentious as the balance was struck between establishing a town center environment for Beulah while also meeting the economic development goals that the county had when it acquired OLF 8 from the U.S. Navy.

Escambia County purchased OLF 8 through a land swap with the Navy, where the county built an identical helicopter training field in Santa Rosa County in a project that ultimately cost the county approximately $18 million. The county recouped more than $4 million on the project when it sold nearly 100 acres to Navy Federal Credit Union.

"(OLF 8) was going to be a jobs program," Bergosh said. "It was very difficult to turn that ship around, and there was a lot of hard feelings. And I took a lot of body shots for that. So at this point, I'm not interested in turning around and turning away from what we've done. One of these offers is hands down better than the other. And I think each of us could represent that.

However, Commissioner Steven Barry said he only supported allowing County Administrator Wes Moreno and County Attorney Alison Rogers to "begin conversations" with the two developers about how to move forward.

"I trust both of them, and both of them have the ability to speak with each of us," Barry said. "And it's one reason why I think they both do a very good job. They lead with direction. They're both willing to lead, but they lead with the direction of the board, not lead on their own. And that's not always been the case."

Barry also said he's always expected the master plan to change and said the Triumph grant will already require a small amendment to the master plan.

"I think it's very unreasonable to expect the final outcome was going to fit exactly into that (master plan)," Barry said. "And candidly, at the time we approved that, I knew that whatever was going to go on the ground, it was going to take some altering."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia County OLF 8 projects has offers from multiple developers