A Chicago area institutional investor is the new majority owner of the 5,300 acres of undeveloped land in Daytona’s LPGA area.
DAYTONA BEACH — In a move that took Daytona Beach city officials by surprise, Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. announced late Wednesday its sale of a controlling interest in the remaining undeveloped land it owns here to a Chicago area-based investment group.
“I just got an email (from Consolidated-Tomoka) saying that they sold (a 66.5 percent stake in) all 5,300 acres in Daytona Beach for $97 million to Magnetar Capital,” City Commissioner Rob Gilliland announced at the end of Wednesday night’s commission meeting. “That’s a huge deal to us.”
Gilliland’s comments, which can be heard on the video recording of the meeting on the city’s website, appeared to stun the other commissioners, including Mayor Derrick Henry.
Mark Patten, the chief financial officer for Daytona Beach-based Consolidated-Tomoka, in a phone interview, said the sale is only of the “raw” land that the company owned in the area on both sides of the Interstate 95/LPGA Boulevard interchange, and did not include its properties in downtown Daytona Beach or on A1A or West International Speedway Boulevard.
Consolidated-Tomoka continues to be the sole owner of the former First Baptist Church property in downtown Daytona Beach, the six acres along A1A that it leases to Landshark Bar & Grill and the new Crabby’s Oceanside restaurant, as well as the recently vacated former Barnes & Noble property on West International Speedway Boulevard, across from Daytona International Speedway, Patten confirmed.
And while Evanston, Illinois-based Magnetar will now has final say on what happens to the 5,300 acres, Consolidated-Tomoka will continue to manage the land, Patten said.
“We will work with them on how they want to manage the portfolio,” he said.
Consolidated-Tomoka CEO John Albright in a news release described the sale of the controlling stake to Magnetar as a “transformative transaction (that) unlocks significant value from our remaining legacy holdings in Daytona Beach.”