State's land deal seen as very unusual (Jeb Bush & St. Joe Co.)

[seafan]

State's land deal seen as very unusual

BY GARY FINEOUT
Spetember 25, 2006


At a time when Florida's largest private landowner is laying off employees, the state is proposing to buy land from the politically connected company for current and future road projects.

TALLAHASSEE - In a deal that even state transportation officials call ''unique,'' Florida may spend $46 million to buy land for current and future road projects -- some of which are no more than a line on a map -- from a company that has had close ties to Gov. Jeb Bush's administration and for which the state doesn't yet have an appraisal.

The roughly 4,000 acres of land the state is proposing to buy is owned by a single landowner -- The St. Joe Co., the state's largest private land owner, which recently announced that it was laying off one-tenth of its workforce and was getting out of the homebuilding business in Florida.

St. Joe has long-running ties with the governor's administration, and one of Bush's former top aides is a vice president of the company. At one point, St. Joe owned a 50 percent stake in the company run by Armando Codina, who was Bush's business partner before Bush became governor.

A panel of lawmakers will vote on the deal Tuesday because the state Department of Transportation's account for land-buying doesn't have enough money in it. The $46 million would come out of another state account collected from gasoline taxes and rental-car surcharges and would eventually be paid back from bonds.

But Tuesday's vote by the Legislative Budget Commission will come before the state has completed an independent appraisal on the property, which stretches across 10 North Florida counties.

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