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Beach city hall site is valued at $1.23-million
By AMY WIMMER © St. Petersburg Times, published October 1, 2000 ST. PETE BEACH -- The new city hall will occupy one of the most valuable vacant properties in St. Pete Beach, the city has learned from a recent appraisal. The parcel at 155 Corey Ave. is valued at $1.23-million, more than twice what developers Joe Klingel and Paul Skipper paid for the land two years ago. Klingel and Skipper, who plan to donate their property to the city in exchange for the contract to build a new city hall, bought the land for $538,000 in July 1998. Skipper said he had anticipated an appraised value of about $1-million, but he was pleased by the higher figure. "It was a little higher than what I thought, but I'm not shocked," Skipper said. "There's comparables listed in that appraisal. Some of the drugstores that have gone in have paid $20 and up a square foot." The appraised value on the 1.35-acre city hall site works out to $20.92 per square foot. The property was appraised by Tod Marr and Associates, a real estate appraisal and consulting firm in Clearwater. The appraisal represents the market value of the property, Marr wrote in a letter to Klingel. The property belongs to Long Key Properties, a development corporation. Skipper is president of Long Key; Klingel is treasurer and secretary. The appraiser compared the property to others that have sold recently in St. Pete Beach. Walgreen's, for example, is building a new location on a 49,500-square-foot site along Gulf Boulevard. The property sold for $1.36-million, or $27.38 a square foot. A 17,325-square-foot property at Gulf Winds Drive and Gulf Boulevard sold for $360,000, or $20.78 a square foot. "It's just the old adage of location, location, location," Skipper said. The appraisal will be used in assessing what tax deduction they can claim by donating the property to the city. Skipper would not detail how much money he expects to claim as a deduction. Typically, a corporate donor can claim up to 30 percent of his or her annual gross adjusted income as charitable donation. If the value of the donation is more than 30 percent of the donor's income, the balance can be rolled over and used during other years. The deduction must be used within five years of the donation. Long Key Properties purchased the property, once home of the Paradise Miniature Golf course, after plans fizzled to develop an insurance building on the site. Skipper said the property has generated plenty of interest from commercial buyers. "We had a drugstore look at our property and, in fact, we probably could have sold it to one of them," he said. A data records storage company and a gas station also looked at the location, Skipper added. Skipper and Klingel's dealings with the city have generated controversy, as some residents question whether the unique arrangement, which prohibits the city from collecting competitive bids on the city hall project, favors the developer. The developer maintains that he would rather have an attractive public building on the site, which sits at the western end of Corey Causeway, greeting visitors to the city, than a gas station or large chain drugstore. "We really didn't want that at the entrance to the city," Skipper said. "Our office is here, and we wanted to do something that would be nice there on the site." The city hopes to begin construction on its new city hall by the end of the year.
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