By Jamie Gardner
For the past few weeks, citizens have expressed concern to this newspaper with regard to the potential purchase of land by the Baxley/Appling County Development Authority. For a period of time the authority has been seeking to purchase additional land for industrial development adjacent to Norfolk Southern rail lines.
Appling Development Authority land deal has many concerned
Recently the authority voted to enter into a contractual agreement to purchase approximately 300 acres east of town just off Highway 341. The conflict over this decision has been the fact that the current property owner recently purchased the land from a paper company at a significant amount lower than what the authority agreed to pay per acre. It has been reported that the current property owner purchased the land at a cost of approximately $1,500.00 per acre and then offered to sell the property to the authority at a cost of $3,500.00 per acre.
The News-Banner spoke to Authority Executive Director Dale Atkins about the concerns expressed and he issued the following statement:
“The Development Authority has been contemplating for some time the acquisition of a sizeable tract of land with railroad frontage to develop as an industrial park. While the authority has been successful in buying, leasing and selling land and buildings and has accumulated some reserves, we believe it to be our mission to increase job opportunities in Appling County rather than sit on reserves. Jobs come to communities ready for them, and having a tenant-ready industrial park is a sign of readiness.
The property the authority currently has under contract borders the land Oglethorpe Power Corp. bought for a proposed biomass fuel power plant. Oglethorpe paid $4000.00 per acre for its property. At the time Oglethorpe bought, about 4 years ago, they were interested in acquiring some of the adjacent Rayonier property - the property we have under contract. I contacted Rayonier on behalf of Oglethorpe Power to see if they were interested in selling any of their tract. Rayonier never responded with a price or indication that they were interested in selling. When they recently put the property on the market for sale, neither Rayonier nor its sales agent, Carter Land Group, contacted the authority about the availability of the property.
I was made aware the property was for sale when Tommy Stewart called me inquiring about a contact at Oglethorpe Power to see if Oglethorpe Power was interested in buying the property he was purchasing from Rayonier. Knowing that the authority might be interested in the site, I presented the information to the executive committee of the authority. There was another site west of this site with rail frontage that was also being considered for purchase. The other site offered was 170 acres at a price of $10,000.00 per acre. This site was approximately 300 acres which was offered to the authority at a price of $4,000.00 per acre. Engineers and site evaluators were brought in to do an independent evaluation of both sites and to give quotes on what it would be to run water and sewer to each site. The overall evaluation report favored the larger site. Negotiations were made on the price per acre of each site and the prices were dropped to $8,500.00 per acre for the smaller tract and $3,500.00 per acre on the larger site. The authority, believing $3,500.00 per acre to be a fair value for industrial park property, voted to contract for the Rayonier/Stewart tract, subject to due diligence including assessments of wetlands, soil, etc.
I certainly wish we had had the opportunity to purchase the property directly from Rayonier, but we never did. When presented to the authority, our only choice was to pay what we perceived to be a fair price or not buy the site at all. We believed that this price is consistent with, or less than, prices paid by neighboring authorities for industrial property. While we do not have a current need for the property, we can begin to develop it, applying for funds available to rural areas and joining with Norfolk-Southern and Oglethorpe to create what will be a highly desirable industrial park, with the goal of creating more jobs and better jobs for the current and future generations of the people of Appling County. The authority is having a called meeting on Tuesday, September 6 to reconsider the purchase of the property.”
The News-Banner will have a follow up in next week’s issue if the authority decides to reconsider purchasing the property.
The News-Banner spoke to Authority Executive Director Dale Atkins about the concerns expressed and he issued the following statement:
“The Development Authority has been contemplating for some time the acquisition of a sizeable tract of land with railroad frontage to develop as an industrial park. While the authority has been successful in buying, leasing and selling land and buildings and has accumulated some reserves, we believe it to be our mission to increase job opportunities in Appling County rather than sit on reserves. Jobs come to communities ready for them, and having a tenant-ready industrial park is a sign of readiness.
The property the authority currently has under contract borders the land Oglethorpe Power Corp. bought for a proposed biomass fuel power plant. Oglethorpe paid $4000.00 per acre for its property. At the time Oglethorpe bought, about 4 years ago, they were interested in acquiring some of the adjacent Rayonier property - the property we have under contract. I contacted Rayonier on behalf of Oglethorpe Power to see if they were interested in selling any of their tract. Rayonier never responded with a price or indication that they were interested in selling. When they recently put the property on the market for sale, neither Rayonier nor its sales agent, Carter Land Group, contacted the authority about the availability of the property.
I was made aware the property was for sale when Tommy Stewart called me inquiring about a contact at Oglethorpe Power to see if Oglethorpe Power was interested in buying the property he was purchasing from Rayonier. Knowing that the authority might be interested in the site, I presented the information to the executive committee of the authority. There was another site west of this site with rail frontage that was also being considered for purchase. The other site offered was 170 acres at a price of $10,000.00 per acre. This site was approximately 300 acres which was offered to the authority at a price of $4,000.00 per acre. Engineers and site evaluators were brought in to do an independent evaluation of both sites and to give quotes on what it would be to run water and sewer to each site. The overall evaluation report favored the larger site. Negotiations were made on the price per acre of each site and the prices were dropped to $8,500.00 per acre for the smaller tract and $3,500.00 per acre on the larger site. The authority, believing $3,500.00 per acre to be a fair value for industrial park property, voted to contract for the Rayonier/Stewart tract, subject to due diligence including assessments of wetlands, soil, etc.
I certainly wish we had had the opportunity to purchase the property directly from Rayonier, but we never did. When presented to the authority, our only choice was to pay what we perceived to be a fair price or not buy the site at all. We believed that this price is consistent with, or less than, prices paid by neighboring authorities for industrial property. While we do not have a current need for the property, we can begin to develop it, applying for funds available to rural areas and joining with Norfolk-Southern and Oglethorpe to create what will be a highly desirable industrial park, with the goal of creating more jobs and better jobs for the current and future generations of the people of Appling County. The authority is having a called meeting on Tuesday, September 6 to reconsider the purchase of the property.”
The News-Banner will have a follow up in next week’s issue if the authority decides to reconsider purchasing the property.
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