CALLAWAY — A New Jersey-based land developer is proposing a 1,085-acre project in southeast Callaway that could add thousands of people to the city’s population.
The Primrose Bay development could include 2,170 residential units and 50,000 square feet of commercial space. U.S. Metropolitan Land LLC has filed an application to annex part of property into Callaway and to change the land use and zoning with the city.
Developer George Wang, who represents U.S. Metropolitan, said the number of homes still is conceptual and depends on market analysis.
The entire 1,000 acres lies on a stubby peninsula at the intersection of Laird Bayou and East St. Andrew Bay. The proposed map shows homes on the edge close to the water and commercial space concentrated at County 2297 at the eastern edge of the property.
A portion of the land would remain conservation wetlands.
The site is a few miles south of State 22, and the Sandy Creek Ranch neighborhood is located to the southeast.
The plan also shows a boat basin next to the mouth of Dolan Bayou, 16 acres of open space throughout the developed portion of the property and a trail that would stretch its entire length.
U.S. Metropolitan is making its first foray into real estate in Florida. Wang said the company has worked mostly in China. Wang would not give a timetable for the development because of many factors in play, such as getting city approval for the zoning change and development order and securing environmental studies and permits from the state.
“The language of development and construction is all the same,” Wang said.
U.S. Metropolitan bought the property April 4 from Bank of the Ozarks for $3 million, according to the deed filed in Bay Circuit Court. That is far less than the $9.99 million PCB East Bay 1130 LLC paid to buy the property from the St. Joe Co. on March 22, 2004.
Bank of the Ozarks acquired the property from East Bay as a part of a mortgage foreclosure.
The Panama City consulting firm Buchanan and Harper provided surveying services and formulated the plans.
“My hope is that they plan to develop the property,” Michael Harper said. “I think there is a reasonable percentage of wetland that needs to conserved and avoided.”
U.S. Metropolitan must secure environmental studies and permits from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and other state agencies, but that would be after the land is annexed into Callaway, and after the city approved land use and zoning changes and a development order.
First up is annexation, because 283 acres in the northeast section of the property is in unincorporated Bay County. County public information officer Valerie Sale didn't expect the county to object. Helping matters is that Callaway annexed the 801-acre section from Bay County in 2004.
The second task would be changing the land use and zoning designation to allow for a mixture of uses.
City Manager Michael Fuller hopes to bring annexation, zoning and land use ordinances to the commission at its first meeting in February.
“This is looking to pick back up where everything dropped off when the real estate market dropped off,” Fuller said.
One of the actions the city took in 2007 was securing a $20.43 million capital improvement bond it used to extend utilities the length of County 2297 to Allanton Point. Fuller said the city used about $12 million of that total and Regions Bank is holding the remaining funds. The bond still is part of the city’s debt service.
Mike Jones was a commissioner at the time when St. Joe talked about a development for the property. He said there was no reason he could find that the development would not go forward.
“Looking back at it now, maybe we were hopeful and naive,” Jones said. “You plan for getting a little bit bigger and a little bit more.”
The portion of the property that falls in Callaway is in Ward 3, home to Commissioner Bob Pelletier.
“We haven’t had a big population boom in Callaway since 1995,” said Pelletier, who added, “We don’t want to end up with another Allanton.”
Mayor Thomas Abbott remembers when other developments were discussed for the East Bay area and knows that some people will be skeptical.
“Back in the early 1970s there was a big controversy over a swamp and wetlands area — that the county should stay away,” Abbott said. “They call that area Bay Point. It’s good news when developers are talking to you.”