Babcock Ranch Deal in Trouble

Published Sunday, June 18, 2006Sunday, June 18, 2006 Babcock Deal May Be in TroubleBy Lloyd DunkelbergerLedger Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE -- In a move that could jeopardize the state's plan to preserve a 74,000-acre conservation tract in Southwest Florida, an environmental group filed a challenge Friday against the Babcock Ranch development, alleging it violates state planning standards by allowing urban sprawl.In a petition filed with the state Division of Administrative Hearings, the Sierra Club says the plan to build a new city of some 46,000 residents in a rural region of Charlotte and Lee counties "epitomizes urban sprawl."The environmental activists say there is no demonstrated need for a city of that size in a now remote and rural region of Charlotte County. And they question the project's impact on the area's water supply and roadways.The group has asked for an administrative hearing, hoping a judge will overturn the state Department of Community Affairs' approval of the project and send it back to Charlotte officials for major revisions.The action comes just as Gov. Jeb Bush is scheduled to sign legislation Monday in Punta Gorda that will allow the state to pay $350 million to acquire 74,000 acres of the Babcock property for a conservation project.As a condition of the sale, West Palm Beach developer Syd Kitson also has sought approval to develop an adjacent 17,000acre tract into a community that would include 17,870 homes, 6 million square feet of commercial property, five schools and a 27hole golf course.Frank Jackalone, a senior regional representative for the Sierra Club, said his group supports the preservation of the Babcock property, but he said it shouldn't be contingent on an intensive development that would be "creating a nightmare right next to it."The state's conservation project is designed to protect threatened species like the Florida scrub jay and the panther. But Jackalone said those same animals would be threatened by a new city in what is now an area designated for conservation and agricultural uses.He also said the Babcock development will put more pressure on local governments to provide roads and other services to accommodate the new growth."It's going to cost Lee County a tremendous amount of money to provide all of the infrastructure improvements," he said, while predicting some roads could be become gridlocked, including State Road 80.Other environmental groups, which support the Babcock project, said they feared the Sierra Club's action may derail the effort to preserve a large portion of Babcock Ranch."This may doom the project," said Eric Draper, a lobbyist for Audubon of Florida.A provision in the sales contract with the state provides that land-use approvals must be in place before Kitson sells the land to the state. With a legal challenge that could take months, if not more than a year to resolve, it is likely to push back the state's effort to buy the property, which was scheduled to take place as early as next month.Draper said his biggest concern is if the Sierra challenge drags on, it could force Kitson and his partners out of the project and the ranch could be sold to another developer who may not be willing to strike a similar deal with the state."You don't get the chance to protect 74,000 acres every day," Draper said.Representatives for Kitson said the developer planned to press ahead with the project, noting he has had to overcome other issues in the past year as he put deal together.In a statement, Kitson said he and his partners "remain committed to the worthy goal of preserving Babcock Ranch.""In the past year, working with state and local leaders, we've overcome numerous obstacles in pursuit of the shared vision of preserving over 80 percent of the ranch," he said. "We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that this special piece in Florida will be preserved forever."Gov. Bush said he didn't understand the environmentalists' challenge of the project since it would allow 74,000 acres to be preserved that otherwise could be developed -- although it would be at a lower density.He said Kitson's proposal represented a way to have a "thoughtful development," while preserving a major natural tract. "We think it's better to protect the larger ecosystem," he said.Jackalone said his organization hopes to use the administrative challenge to force the state, Charlotte County and Kitson to agree to less intense development in the area.As part of its challenge, the Sierra Club is challenging an effort to transfer 10,665 density units to Kitson's development.Under existing zoning, only 7,205 units would be allowed on the entire Babcock tract, the environmentalists said.But as part of the agreement, in exchange for selling the state the 74,000 acres that will be preserved, the county has agreed to transfer the additional units, allowing Kitson to build nearly 18,000 housing units in his 17,000-acre community.At a cost of about $20,000 per unit, it represents a $213 million gain for Kitson, the Sierra Club said.The challenge alleges the transfer is in violation of state law and a local ordinance.

Corporate Real Estate Services

Corporate Services add value to Corporations around the world.

By: Kevin M. Fitzgerald, CSE

We have all heard of corporations that for whatever reasons have undergone right sizing or re-engineering themselves. Consequently one of the first departments to become affected by this activity is the corporate real estate department. Customers and clients are demanding better and a more wide variety of services inside as well as outside the local marketplace. Global and virtual real estate departments are fast becoming the rule rather than the exception. Corporate Services has been identified as a key component to sustaining relationships around the world. A Corporate Services Group develops and manages client relationships, and ensures delivery of global advisory and transaction management services to corporate clients


Corporate services can mean different things in different situations. Simply, Corporate services have been defined as those services required by corporations and fulfilled by a professional commercial real estate service provider that adds shareholder value. By engineering a Corporate Services model you are actually providing single source access to managers of large, geographically diverse real estate portfolios and requirements. The Corporate Services approach is focused on long-term customer service and managing tens or hundreds of projects simultaneously. A Corporate services team becomes the extension of the corporate real estate department without the financial burden of becoming an employee. A Corporate services team is only compensated when they perform the necessary and predetermined functions that are aligned with the corporation’s goals and objectives.

In the 1980’s real estate agents were merely known as real estate agents, in the 90’s we became preferred vendors and today we are considered strategic alliance partners. No matter what the label, Corporate America as well as local companies, have been looking for customer service from their professional commercial real estate partner. Corporate Services creates “value added” service combined with traditional brokerage services and is more relationship driven than transaction oriented.

A corporate services group employs sophisticated proprietary, on-line technology with comprehensive process management systems to mobilize and manage the full power of the organization. By offering commercial real estate services worldwide, a customer or client can be assured of a customized service guarantee utilizing a single point of contact strategy. Whether the assignment is in Los Angeles, Costa Rica, Chicago, Atlanta, Warsaw or Hong Kong, a client’s goals and objectives can be met with the same local expertise as if they were in Southwest Florida. Local knowledge combined with Global reach is a key element to this strategy by corporations around the world.

For a commercial real estate company to employ a corporate services group, a company must be customer driven and not transaction oriented. The desire to build a relationship with a corporation is essential to the success of any CSE group. The combination of strong central management of the client’s requirements coupled with unparalleled knowledge and expertise in local markets is critical to providing the highest level of performance possible. Each client has a specific Corporate Service Executive (CSE) to meet his or her needs. The CSE is the sole source of accountability and is fully empowered to ensure top quality performance by all team members on every assignment for the client. The CSE works closely with the client to create the short and long-term plans required to exceed client expectations.

Working closely with clients, the CSE jointly develops process management to maximize client objectives. By jointly developing this model, the requirements for the services to be provided are well defined for every assignment, the criteria for measuring results are in place, and the results of each assignment are used to provide continuous quality improvement for the next and each subsequent assignment.

Research has proven that at times traditional brokerage isn’t adequate to cover a client’s requirements. Therefore the scope of services must be expanded to include Information, Management, Advisory and Financial Services. These service groups enable the CSE to deliver complete and comprehensive corporate real estate services from Lease Administration to Lease Auditing, from Facilities Management to Facilities Development, and from Structured Lease Finance to Portfolio Optimization Studies.

With the breadth of these value added services, the CSE can function as an actual extension of the client’s corporate real estate department, providing the transaction management expertise traditionally performed by the corporation’s own employees.

This can include defining project needs, selecting and managing the broker’s marketing or site selection efforts, conducting financial analyses, negotiating the business terms and conditions of the transaction, and preparing draft documents for the client’s review and execution.

By employing a Corporate Services strategy any corporation no matter its size can expand beyond its current geographical location.

Kevin M. Fitzgerald, CSE, is the President of NAI Southwest Florida, Inc.

Introducing NAI Southwest Florida

For all your needs in Southwest Florida call NAI Southwest Florida where we are committed to Florida and connected to the world. Ours is the largest managed network in the world. With access to over 3500 commercial real estate professionals in more than 40 countries. Our brokers concentrate locally from Marco Island to Sarasota. I hope that you will visit us often.


Kevin M. Fitzgerald
President/Principal13120 Westlinks Terrace Blvd.Fort Myers, FL 33913www.naiswfl.comtel 1 239 437 3330 fax 1 239 437 3220 kfitzgerald@naiswfl.com

Licensed in FL, IA & ILBuild on the power of our network.™

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