Speculator turns landlocked land into gold mine

[Times photo: Thomas M. Goethe] Larry Cothron must allow an easement on the land housing his business to land on which he failed to pay taxes. Don Connolly's partner, Joseph L. Herndon, bought the land for $11,000. Connolly sold it for $100,000.

By JEFF TESTERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 1, 2002

TAMPA -- Real estate investor Don Connolly and a partner used a Florida law guaranteeing access to landlocked property to turn an $11,000 tax deed into a $100,000 sale in just three months.

Left behind when the quick profit was turned was Larry Cothron, a Tampa businessman. In addition to losing a valuable property at a tax deed sale, he might have to give away 10 to 15 percent of his business property to provide access to the land Connolly's investment group bought.

"I screwed up when I couldn't pay my taxes," Cothron said. "But Connolly is the biggest barracuda I've ever seen."

On Dec. 3, Connolly's partner, Joseph L. Herndon, paid $11,000 to buy the tax deed for a 1-acre parcel Cothron had owned at the rear of Cothron's Auto Service Center at 5620 Martin Luther King Blvd.

The parcel is vacant and has no access from the road.

Connolly began working on that problem a few weeks later, after Herndon deeded the property to Connolly's GGH Land trust for $11,100.

Connolly offered to sell the property back to Cothron for $50,000, or $60,000 if he needed financing, Cothron said.

"I told him the property is landlocked," Cothron said. "He says to me, "The state will make you give me an easement.' "

To prove it, Connolly filed a lawsuit asking the court to grant his property an easement for "ingress, egress, drainage and utility lines over (Cothron's) larger tract."

"He said he was going to put an easement right through the middle of my property," Cothron said.

Connolly used a video camera to film his projected easement, then put up a fence and gate around the 1-acre property next to Cothron's.

Cothron consulted his attorney, A.G. Spicola Jr., who concluded that under Florida law, no parcel of land can remain landlocked.

While Cothron mulled a settlement, Connolly found a buyer for the parcel. Peter C. Barron II paid $100,000 for the land on March 7, and says he will probably put an auto detailing business on the property.

The Hillsborough property appraiser says the land has a market value of just $32,490. Once invisible from busy Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the property jumped in value after Connolly proved it had access.

"I'm not sure what the 1 acre's worth, but commercial property goes through the roof," Baron said.

As for Cothron, he calculates the easement he must provide will claim a 30-foot swath of his business property. And he thinks he'll have to split the cost of fencing the easement to settle Connolly's lawsuit.

Spicola says there's not much else Cothron can do.

The moral, he says: "Pay your taxes."

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