General

St Johns Water Management District may deny developer’s permits

As any Orlando real estate professional will tell you, obtaining proper permits and clearances is absolutely vital if a potentially lucrative development deal is ever to become reality. Not obtaining these permits could mean a promising commercial real estate concept never moves past the idea stage.

Unfortunately for the developers and owners behind Park, Bark and Fly, an offsite parking lot near Orlando International Airport, it seems a stormwater permit it applied for after the fact is going to be denied by the St. Johns River Water Management District.

Evidently, what happened here is that the Water Management District issued permits in 1989 and 1995 to the party that owned the property at that time. When the developers behind Park, Bark and Fly bought the site, it seems they thought they had all the permits they needed.

However, the site’s previous owners were not very scrupulous and left behind a “mishmash” of incomplete stormwater-management projects that they had agreed to take on in order to get the permits. Once the Water Management District found out about that, it ordered Park, Bark and Fly to make repairs and start projects that the owner claims could cost $1 million.

The developer said he is not willing to invest that much into a business that has yet to turn a profit, so the work has not been performed, so the Water Management District has said it does not plan to issue the permits Park, Bark and Fly needs to continue operating. Without those permits, the operation could have to shut down.

Source: The Orlando Sentinel, “Airport-parking sites face water permit rejection,” Kevin Spear, July 8, 2013

Fri Aug 24, 5:34pm