Orlando-based attorney Matt Morgan has offered $10 million to buy the land where the historic — but imperiled — Merrywood House stands in Winter Park with the goal of preserving it.
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But the real estate agent working with the building’s owners said the offer is far below what the property is actually worth.
Meanwhile, a proposal to split the property in half is moving forward before the city commission, which already granted initial approval for the idea in June, and Merrywood’s owners say they’re ready to tear it down.
Morgan, who lives in Winter Park, told the Sentinel Tuesday that if the lot is split, he’s also willing to buy the portion of the land with the 7,300-square-foot mansion at 1020 Palmer Avenue for $5.5 million. He said he originally offered $10 million last year for the entire 3.67-acre property, which was reported earlier this week by the Winter Park Voice.
“My position is I’ll buy the Merrywood estate and I’ll preserve that home as well,” said Morgan, who works at Morgan & Morgan, the firm started by his father, John Morgan.
“I would not do a major renovation on it in the near term,” he said. “I would simply take preservation measures to ensure its viability moving forward. Then at some time in the future, I would begin a rehabilitation process.”
The Spanish-style home built in 1939 is the largest residence designed by the city’s famed architect, James Gamble Rogers II. It’s estimated fewer than 30 homes he designed remain standing in the city.
Mick Night, of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, has consulted for about a year with the owners on selling the property — and trying, he said, to find a buyer interested in preserving the house.
Night said when Morgan made the offer last August on the entire property, it was taken to the owners and “that wasn’t a number they were interested in selling the property for.” He added that at the time Morgan offered no clear path regarding the preservation of Merrywood.
Then, in the wake of the city hearing on the property, Morgan reached out by text message Friday with an offer just for the land with the mansion, indicating he wanted to save it.
Night said he communicated Morgan’s offer to the owners and Tara Tedrow, the Orlando land-use attorney seeking to split the lot in half. Tedrow has a contract to buy a vacant portion of the land to build a home and has worked to find a buyer of the other portion to save Merrywood. Night would not disclose the amount of Tedrow’s contract.
“Just logically speaking, that there’s not going to be any interest near that number for two acres of land or more to save the house,” he said of Morgan’s offer. “I felt like that for the entire property, discussions needed to be in the 15 million [dollar] range.”
Tedrow reached out to the Sentinel several times on Tuesday, but ultimately declined to comment.
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Siblings Cathy and Raymond Gilmer own the home and have a permit to demolish it, but have held off since last year while the search was underway for a buyer who’d preserve it. Cathy Gilmer has said Merrywood was her family’s home from 1976, when she was 6, until her mother died last year.
Lakefront lot splits — which vastly increase a property’s value — are rare in Winter Park.
But city commissioners voted 3-2 on June 24 to back an amendment to the city’s comprehensive plan sought by Tedrow — tailored to apply only to the Merrywood land — that would allow splitting the lot along Lake Osceola. The state has 30 days to review the amendment and a final vote on approval could likely happen within the next 45 days.
The city’s prohibition against splitting lakefront lots dates back to the 1990s and was put in place to protect community character and natural resources along the city’s lakes.
Without a lot split, someone could buy the entire property and potentially build a 55,991-square-foot house on the land under the existing city ordinance. The city’s largest house, just down the street at 916 Palmer Avenue, is about 40,000 square feet. The proposed amendment initially approved by commissioners would cap the combined square footage of the homes on the two lots at 30,000.
Although the Gilmers have agreed to delay demolition until after a vote, Cathy Gilmer has told commissioners she and her brother plan to tear down the house regardless of whether they’re allowed to divide up the property.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio, who supported the lot split amendment, told the Sentinel Tuesday she wasn’t aware of the offers Morgan has made on the property.
“I’m thrilled if he’s going to maintain the house and renovate it,” DeCiccio said.
But she did not want to comment on what, if any, impact the offer could have on final approval of the lot split later this summer, including whether the city would insist on preserving the house as a required condition of any split.
Freshman Commissioner Elizabeth Ingram, one of the most vocal supporters on the commission for saving Merrywood, said she expects the new information will lead to further discussions among commissioners on the fate of of the mansion.
“I’m really happy that Matt Morgan came out with and told us this,” Ingram said.
Morgan said that after reading in the Sentinel about the commissioners’ first vote in favor of the lot split, he felt they seemed unaware there was an option in which someone was willing to buy the property to preserve and maintain Merrywood.
“Now that’s well known and I think that will change the assessment,” he said. “The buyers and the sellers understand that I am ready, willing and able to preserve the home.”
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