Estimated Price Tag For Peary Court: $53-57 Million
By Pru Sowers
When city officials made an off-the-cuff offer to buy the Peary Court housing development on White Street for $55 million in June, they weren’t far off the mark, according to one of two appraisals of the housing complex.
The 157-unit campus is worth between $53 million and $57 million, depending on whether it is designated as an income-restricted workforce housing complex, as city commissioners want, or a for-sale condominium development with no income restriction, according to Meridian Appraisal Group out of Winter Springs, Fla.
A second appraisal by Appraisal Company of Key West was due last week but had been delayed.
“The staff will get together and chop through that [appraisals] and then come forward at the next [city commission] meeting with a recommendation, perhaps a consideration for referendum there,” City Manager Jim Scholl said.
The owner of Peary Court, White Street Partners, had informally told Scholl earlier it would be interested in discussion of a sale at $55 million. The development group purchased the property from the U.S. Navy in 2013 for $35 million with the intention of turning the neighborhood complex into luxury housing. Part of that project included building 48 units of designated affordable housing, bringing the total number of new units to 208. But unable to overcome skepticism from the Key West Historic Architectural Review Commission (HARC), the developers decided to scrap their plans, keeping the existing rental housing and building the originally planned 48 units of new affordable housing.
Commissioner Jimmy Weekley then proposed that the city purchase the property as a way to protect Peary Court from being developed into something other than the moderate income neighborhood that it has become. Formerly used for military housing, Peary Court was opened to civilians in 1995.
“I brought this forward because I think we need to be able to protect and preserve the affordable housing we have existing,” said Weekley said at the time, referring to a report written last year by former planning director Don Craig, that estimated that Key West needs an additional 3,000 units of affordable housing to meet the demand from teachers, service staff, police, firefighters and anyone else wanting to live and work in a resort city where housing prices continue to soar.
The age and current general condition of the property, according to Meridian, is average as compared to similar properties. Built in 1996, the report stated there were no major improvements necessary at this time
“The physical age of the [property] improvements is 19 years and the condition of the improvements is considered to be average. The economic life of the improvements is estimated at 50 years. The remaining economic life is estimated at 31 years,” the Meridian report stated.
If commissioners agree to move forward with purchase negotiations, any agreement would have to be approved by voters in the March 15 presidential primary election. Funds would come from municipal bonds the city would float to cover the purchase price, with taxpayers paying back the principal and interest.
Meridian was paid $12,300 for its appraisal. Appraisal Company of Key West is being paid $15,000 for its report.
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Has everyone forgotten the loss of PROPERTY TAXES for the City and County? Therefore it will continue to cost the Taxpayers into the future. Is City Administration willing to cut its expenses to make up the TAX LOSS? Or, will they want another Tax increase to pay for this and the additional that will be incurred from government managing the complex?
Is what is considered “affordable housng”, REALLY AFFORDABLE? I continue to maintain that not! While it is “cheaper housing,” it is still not affordable for those that actually need housing.