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Plate I · The county land beside North County Airport that Jeff Greene sought
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The Lead · People · Palm Beach County
The billionaire investor and 2018 candidate for governor offered $30 million for land beside Palm Beach County's North County airport, tied to a 50-year jet terminal lease. Commissioners voted 7-0 on Oct. 20 to open both to rival bids, and as of Nov. 1 nothing had been sold or leased.
Billionaire investor Jeff Greene asked Palm Beach County to sell him 131 acres beside its North County airport and lease him a site there for a private-jet terminal. If you fly private in Palm Beach County, the winner would hold that terminal lease for half a century. Stet News, a nonprofit Palm Beach County news site, reports that the county's main airport has no room for more private planes. North County, off Beeline Highway, is meant to take some of them, Stet adds.
Why it matters: Palm Beach County owns the land and the airport. On Oct. 20 county commissioners voted 7-0 to put the land sale and the terminal lease out for rival bids instead of dealing with Greene alone. The lease would be at market rent, the county's agenda says, meaning the going rate, not a discount. A rival, Sky Harbour, already has its own proposal for the terminal site on file, the agenda shows. Stet says the company bills itself as the country's largest builder of private hangar campuses and jet terminals. Greene says the idea began when he could not
find covered parking for his Gulfstream at the county's main airport, Stet reports. He was disappointed by the vote but will likely keep pursuing the deal, even in an open contest, Stet reported Oct. 31. As of Nov. 1, nothing had been sold, leased or signed, per county summaries and Stet.
What's next: County staff are to draw up the bidding terms for the land and the terminal site. Airports Director Laura Beebe said she would bring them back early next year, Stet reported Oct. 31. No date is fixed, and no solicitation had been posted as of Nov. 1, per the county's posted meeting summaries.
Old Florida Money desk · Mon Nov 2 · As of Nov. 1, per the county's posted meeting summaries and Stet News, nothing has been sold, leased or signed and no solicitation has been posted. Greene's plans, estimates and reasons are his own claims, as Stet News reports them. · Sources: Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners (Oct. 20 agenda, meeting summary and meeting recording); Stet News; WPTV; The Palm Beach Post; WFLX; Forbes
Read the full story
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Oaktree Alpha posts later this morning at oldfloridamoney.com/alpha.
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Plate II · Amendment Three would cut local property taxes on Florida homes
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Money Pulse
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Realtors gave $21.5 million to pass Amendment 3. One Gainesville firm got 98 cents of each dollar spent
Florida and national Realtor groups have given $21.5 million to the committee pushing Tuesday's property tax amendment, and about 98% of its spending has gone to SGS Inc., a Gainesville company, state records show. Since Oct. 9, the committee has reported nine more payments, about $6.6 million, bringing its spending to about $21.1 million, by our arithmetic. Orlando Weekly reports SGS is owned by longtime GOP operative Patrick Bainter. The three committees against the measure have raised about $1.8 million, and Amendment 3 needs 60% of the vote.
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Florida State fires Mike Norvell and takes on a buyout that runs to 2031
Florida State University fired Mike Norvell, its football coach for seven seasons, on Sunday, with the team at three wins and five losses after two seasons without a bowl game, the postseason reward for enough wins. It named Rick Stockstill interim coach. The public university owes him a buyout on a contract that runs through 2031: AP puts it at roughly $47 million, CBS Sports at just over $48.6 million and ESPN at $50.3 million. No record from FSU, its trustees or Seminole Boosters, the FSU booster group, yet says whose money pays it, and AP and CBS report it could shrink if he takes another job.
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Jolly asks Byron Donalds to pledge to divest his family's school firms. Erika Donalds calls it sexist
David Jolly, the Democrat running for governor, asked Republican Byron Donalds on Oct. 22 to pledge to divest, if elected, his family's interests in companies that profit off state spending. Erika Donalds, his wife, runs those charter school companies; she called treating her businesses as her husband's property sexist and says her firms do not contract directly with the state. One online charter school's plan for this year, in a budget version amended Sept. 8, lists $15.7 million of its $16.1 million in income as due to her company, OptimaEd. Byron Donalds says he will follow ethics rules,
including recusal, and Florida votes on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
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Boca Raton's ADT agrees to go private, with Apollo's funds backing the buyer
ADT, the Boca Raton home-alarm company, agreed Oct. 29 to be bought by Thrive Holdings, a holding company with more than 75 businesses, for $10 a share in cash. That is 45.6% above its price before the news, and ADT's shares would stop trading. Funds run by Apollo's affiliated firms committed to lend the buyer money and to buy preferred shares in its parent, ADT's SEC filing shows; Apollo's funds sold their last ADT shares in May. Until Nov. 28, ADT may look for a better bid, and the deal is expected to close early next year.
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Miami votes Tuesday on a Virginia Key marina lease only the tenant can stretch to 75 years
Miami voters decide Tuesday whether to lease Virginia Key's two city marinas to Virginia Key LLC, a venture of Suntex Marinas and RCI Group, for 45 years, with two 15-year renewals at the tenant's option. Through Oct. 29, Suntex Marina Investors had put about $3.8 million into the Yes committee, counting a $275,000 loan, and Rickenbacker Marina Corp, which runs one of them now, about $1.8 million into the No, by our tally of city campaign reports. The Yes committee also gave $116,000 to a state political committee that Florida Politics reports paid for a "Democratic Voter Guide" urging a yes
vote; the county Democratic Party opposes the lease.
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Plate III · The new Gulf-front Naples house that sold off-market in October
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From the desks
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A Naples beach lot sold for $870,000 in 1985. With a new house, it just sold for $69.4 million
A new Gulf-front house in Naples sold off-market for $69.4 million on Oct. 13, county records show, with Premier Sotheby's International Realty on the seller's side. The same piece of beach sold for $870,000 in 1985. The seller, a land trust, paid about $30 million for it in 2022, and the house and land just sold for more than twice that, by our arithmetic. An older house came down and a new one went up, designed by the Naples firm Stofft Cooney Architects. The buyer also paid $1.6 million for the furnishings, The Real Deal reports. The property has 150 feet of Gulf frontage, and a private bridge
crosses between two ponds on its grounds, The Real Deal reports, citing the Naples Daily News.
Sources: Collier County Property Appraiser sale records; Business Observer; The Real Deal
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That is the edition. Every story above, with its records, is on the site.
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About
Old Florida Money is a Florida newsletter on where the money goes: the named checks behind houses, teams, races and public votes across the state.
Illustrations are Old Florida Money editorial art. Portraits of public figures are caricature or silhouette, never photographs. Each image carries its credit.
Drawn after reference photographs: Plate I, U.S. Geological Survey, The National Map, USGS Imagery Only basemap (US government work, public domain). Plate II, Infrogmation, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5). Plate III, USDA NAIP imagery via U.S. Geological Survey, The National Map (US government work, public domain). St. Petersburg · Est. MMXXV
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