D.C. developer poised to buy Ormond Crossings. Here's what we know about it.

Clayton Park, Daytona Beach News-Journal
Updated ·7 min read

The "future" of Ormond Beach is about to get a new owner.

The city's last big unbuilt real estate development site − the nearly 3,000 acres south of the Interstate 95/U.S. 1 interchange known as Ormond Crossings − is set to be sold to a developer from the Washington, D.C. area.

"It's under contract," confirmed David Lusby, a real estate consultant to the property's current owners, the Ford family of DeLand.

Lusby who spoke to The Daytona Beach News-Journal on Wednesday, declined to disclose the sale price. He said the transaction is expected to close by the end of December.

Real estate consultant David Lusby, left, and Joe Mannarino, the then-economic development director for the City of Ormond Beach, are seen on the site of the long-planned Ormond Crossings mixed-use development in Ormond Beach in 2015. The 3,000-acres on the south side of U.S. 1 on both sides of Interstate 95 is under contract to be sold to a developer from Maryland, Lusby confirmed on Dec. 20, 2023. The sale is expected to close by the end of December.

The buyer is a developer from the D.C. area

The buyer is Brad Kline, a developer whose company, Bradford Kline & Associates, is based in Potomac, Maryland.

"He's a big developer located in the D.C. area," said Lusby.

Kline and his wife Theresa own a luxury home in Palm Beach County. The South Florida Business Journal in 2021 reported that the couple paid $10.25 million for a mansion in Highland Beach.

The News-Journal was unable to reach Kline or the Ford family for comment.

Kline describes himself on his LinkedIn social media page as a "part-time" developer whose focus is on "land development, apartment development, retail development and office development (in) Maryland, Virginia and Delaware." He adds that his "full-time" passion is hunting and fishing.

Kline founded Bradford Kline & Associates in 1978 two years after graduating from the University of South Carolina, where he played on the varsity football team. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and management.

Ormond Beach Economic Development Director Brian Rademacher said he met Kline when the developer began his due diligence on Ormond Crossings and what would be involved to develop it.

"He's a very nice man who is very knowledgeable about real estate development," said Rademacher. "He talked about some of his projects (in the D.C. area) including Jefferson Tech Park, which has several components including residential, retail and a life sciences campus for pharmaceutical companies. He also talked about a mixed-use project (in Ashburn, Virginia) involving a couple of historical buildings where he added residential units and retail."

Rademacher said Kline indicated to him "the intent, if the deal closes, to get started with the project, to start breaking ground (soon)."

Rademacher added that the developer seemed confident the land purchase would go through. Kline would serve as the master developer, who could bring in other developers to handle the various components of Ormond Crossings.

Brad Kline
Brad Kline

What is Ormond Crossings?

Ormond Crossings is a mixed-use development that's been in the works since 2002 when the land was owned by a subsidiary of Florida East Coast Railroad.

The property is south of U.S. Highway 1, on both sides of Interstate 95. It includes an FEC Railroad line that runs parallel to U.S. 1, just south of the highway but north of most of the developable land. It includes an additional 3,000 acres set aside as wetlands and conservation land.

Kline's pending purchase does not include the wetlands mitigation bank, said Lusby.

Lusby has been involved in efforts to develop Ormond Crossings since 2004 when his then-employer Tomoka Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Duluth, Minnesota public utility company Allete, acquired the property in 2004.

Tomoka Holdings obtained the necessary approvals for the project from the City of Ormond Beach in 2010. The entitlements allow the development of a nearly 2.5 million square foot commerce park on the east side of I-95 and nearly 3,000 homes on the west side. The west side would also include a half-million-square-foot town center of which 158,000 square feet would be retail.

Hampered by the Great Recession, Tomoka Holdings was unable to develop Ormond Crossings. It sold the land in 2016 for $21 million to Ford Properties of DeLand, a real estate company owned by the Ford family. Lusby and two colleagues have been real estate consultants to the Ford family on Ormond Crossings ever since.

Security First Insurance in September 2017 paid the Fords $2.25 million to acquire 48 acres at Ormond Crossings to build its new headquarters campus. The four-story, 133,000-square-foot office building, which has become a landmark along the east side of I-95, opened in November 2019.

The insurance company employs 420 workers there, said Security First President Melissa Burt DeVriese.

This is an aerial view of the headquarters for Security First Insurance on opening day in November 2019 at Ormond Crossings in Ormond Beach. Located on 48 acres along the east side of Interstate 95, just south of U.S. 1, the four-story, 136,000-square-foot office building remains the only portion of the 3,000-acre Ormond Crossings development site to be developed so far. That could soon change as Ormond Crossings is under contract to be sold, a real estate consultant representing the current landowners confirmed on Dec. 20, 2023. The buyer is Maryland developer Bradford Kline who has already worked out a deal for Meritage Homes to building 2,950 homes on the west side of I-95. Kline would develop nearly 3 million square feet of commercial space on the east side of I-95.

'Our last great hope'

When Security First announced its plans for Ormond Crossings, City and community leaders at the time expressed hope that the $40 million project would become a catalyst for developing the rest of the buildable land.

Joe Mannarino, the City's then-economic development director, in a 2016 interview called Ormond Crossings "the future of Ormond Beach. We don't have the land elsewhere to attract new companies or for existing ones to expand."

The rest of Ormond Crossings remains undeveloped today, but its pending sale is reviving hopes for its potential to finally be fulfilled.

Rademacher who became economic development director when Mannarino retired in 2018 said Ormond Crossings "will be an exciting opportunity for the growth of the City of Ormond Beach, particularly for the commerce park. It will provide opportunities for companies looking to expand or to relocate here that could create high-paying jobs."

Local resident Peggy Farmer, a former executive director of the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce, has led efforts for many years to revitalize the city's U.S. Highway 1 corridor. In a phone interview Thursday, she described Ormond Crossings as "our last great hope for Ormond Beach in terms of future growth and major economic prosperity."

This is a conceptual plan for Ormond Crossings, which would have 2,950 homes built on the west side of Interstate 95 and nearly 3 million square feet of commercial space on the east side of the interstate. The 3,000 acres are south of U.S. 1 on both sides of I-95 and mostly south of a Florida East Coast Railroad line that runs parallel to U.S. 1.
This is a conceptual plan for Ormond Crossings, which would have 2,950 homes built on the west side of Interstate 95 and nearly 3 million square feet of commercial space on the east side of the interstate. The 3,000 acres are south of U.S. 1 on both sides of I-95 and mostly south of a Florida East Coast Railroad line that runs parallel to U.S. 1.

A national homebuilder would be involved

Lusby said Kline already has an agreement with Scottsdale, Arizona-based Meritage Homes that calls for the homebuilder to develop the residential portion of Ormond Crossings.

Meritage, the nation's fifth-largest homebuilder, has already submitted a conceptual plan to the City to build 2,950 homes on 631 acres at Ormond Crossings, confirmed Ormond Beach Planning Director Steven Spraker. The conceptual plan includes a future elementary school, several parks and a 13-mile "multi-modal trail system."

The News-Journal was unable to reach Meritage officials for comment.

Major infrastructure improvements required

The entitlements for Ormond Crossings are transferrable to whoever buys it, confirmed Spraker.

But they come with requirements for significant infrastructure improvements. They include the construction of two vehicle overpasses, or "flyovers," over the existing FEC Railroad line west and east of I-95, and a vehicle overpass over I-95 to connect the residential and commercial sections of Ormond Crossings.

The access road from U.S. 1 to Security First's headquarters is an at-grade crossing over the F.E.C. Railroad line, but that was because it was an existing road, said Clay Ervin, Volusia County director of Growth & Natural Resource Management. Ervin was planning director for Ormond Beach from 2002 to 2008.

Maryam Ghyabi, an Ormond Beach civil engineering and transportation planning consultant, estimates the infrastructure improvements could cost as much as $40 million.

"You cannot put a development of this magnitude without multi-millions (of dollars) in infrastructure improvements," she said.

One thing that might trim some of the infrastructure costs is the Florida Department of Transportation's recently announced plans to build a new I-95/U.S. 1 interchange. The $340 million project would include traffic improvements to U.S. 1 north of Ormond Crossings.

FDOT is expected to begin construction in fall 2027 with completion targeted for 2030.

"The new interchange will greatly help the developers, but they still have a massive amount of improvements they will need to do," said Ghyabi who assists FDOT in public engagement for the interchange project.

Pending sale viewed as 'positive development'

Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington said he heard Ormond Crossings was under contract to be sold.

"It sounds like a positive development," he said Thursday. "We would expect whoever buys it to live up to the DRI (development of regional impact) that we approved for that area. I look forward to working with whoever the purchaser is."

Parker Mynchenberg is developing the planned 1,050-home Plantation Oaks of Ormond Beach community a mile north of Ormond Crossings. He sees Ormond Crossings' pending sale as something that could ultimately benefit his development as well as the rest of the area.

"It's good to see it's finally coming to fruition," he said of Ormond Crossings. "As it becomes developed, once you have residential rooftops, then the commercial developments such as offices, restaurants and retail will follow."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Who is the developer buying Ormond Crossings? We've got the answer.