After rescinding an initial offer for the 1,400-acre Whispering Hills development site and instead opting to purchase it through auction, Oviedo-based Sun Terra Communities has received bankruptcy court approval of its $45 million bid, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.
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The maneuver saved Sun Terra $17 million on the purchase price and allows the moribund Leesburg project to move forward.
Developer Jean Marsan of Orlando-based Marsan Real Estate Group initially proposed turning the property – located on the site of the former Journey M Circle Ranch in Leesburg just east of U.S. Highway 27 and north of Dewey Robbins Road — into a 1,088-acre mixed-use development.
The proposed Whispering Hills project received zoning approvals for a golf and equestrian community of nearly 3,000 residential units and up to 451,000 square feet of commercial, hotel, medical and office uses.
But plans fell through, and Marsan — operating as Bellaviva at Whispering Hills LLC — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Octoberfollowing up with a liquidation plan for the property in January of this year.
Sun Terra made an initial offer of $62 million before rescinding it and, in May, placing a $45 million stalking horse bid on the property. Open bidding for the property started at $45.7 million.
No qualified bids were submitted through that process by the June 29 deadline, so the scheduled auction was cancelled and Marsan was able to seek approval of the SunTerra bid through bankruptcy court.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Grace Robson signed the final order for the bid earlier this week, and Sun Terra expects to close on the property within the next 20 days, according to Sun Terra Principal Richard Jerman.
“We’ll start looking at the plans and whatever we might want to change of the existing plans,” he said. “We’ll talk to builders and decide how we’re going to proceed with the development of the project.”
With some of the project already engineered, Sun Terra could commence construction on the early phases without going back to the planning board or city commission for approval, Jerman said.
“If we can stick with what’s there, we can develop with what it’s got now,” he said. “We can use those original plans, or we might make some changes. We don’t know yet.”
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Jerman identified the project’s proximity to Florida’s Turnpike and the growth of Lake County as driving forces behind Sun Terra purchasing Whispering Hills.
“We like Lake County a lot, and we’ve been successful in Lake County with Minneola,” he said. “It’s one of the fastest-growing counties, so we’ve targeted some larger projects, and this was one of those.”
Sun Terra has a long track record in Central Florida of developing larger, master-planned communities, including Hills of Minneola, Harmony and Horizon West.
Adjacent to the Whispering Hills property, Risewell Homes is currently selling within the 147-acre Hodges Reserve development. That community is planned for 449 single-family residential units near the north side of Dewey Robbins and east of U.S. 27.
Homes within Hodges Reserve will range from three to six bedrooms, two and a half to three and a half bathrooms, and 1,773 to 2,560 square feet, according to Risewell.
Just north of Whispering Hills — near No. 2 Road and Busby Road, east of the Windsong neighborhood — Richland Communities is planning development of its 337-acre Silver Springs community.
Concerns from nearby residents about traffic generated by the proposed 825 detached single-family homes on No. 2 Road early last year prompted Richland to move the proposed neighborhood’s access point off that road to an access point through Whispering Hills.
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