Third company steps up to buy World Woods:

After two companies drop plans to develop land around the golf club, MPI
Managers Inc. signs a contract.
By DAN DEWITT
Published September 6, 2006

 

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An Illinois investment group has signed a contract to buy the land around
World Woods Golf Club after two Florida companies pulled out of deals to
develop the property.

The partners in the new firm, MPI Managers Inc., include Tony Pasquinelli,
one of the founders of the 50-year-old Paquinelli Construction Co., based in
suburban Chicago.

"World Woods Corp. is very high on MPI, as they are extremely experienced
and have been very cooperative," said Stan Cooke, a World Woods vice
president.

Pasquinelli Construction has built houses through much of the Midwest and
Southeast but has never done business in Florida, he said. He and his
partners were drawn to the property for the same reasons as the two previous
developers:

The Florida real estate market will regain its strength as large numbers of
baby boomers begin to retire here; and because of the Suncoast Parkway,
World Woods is now within convenient driving distance of Tampa International
Airport.

"We've done the drive. I think it's sufficiently close. That whole area is
picking up," Pasquinelli said. Other partners include Mosher Enterprises of
Naperville and Melvin Isenstein, a Chicago-area real estate investor,
Pasquinelli said

Though MPI is convinced of the value of the property, it has not decided
when development will begin or what shape it will take.

"I'm using a planner out of Jacksonville, and we're waiting for his report,"
Pasquinelli said. Though his construction company is the 34th-largest
residential builder in the United States, he said, he has not decided
whether it will build homes on this site.

"This is a development group, not a builder," he said of MPI.

The county changed its comprehensive plan last year at the request of one
prospective developer, WCI Communities Inc., of Lee County. MPI will
probably stay within the limits of this change, which allows 1,680 houses
and resort units on the 1,170 acres owned by World Woods, Pasquinelli said.

WCI pulled out its contract with World Woods in early 2005 and was replaced
by Kitson & Partners LLC of West Palm Beach.

Kitson then abandoned the project partly because of its commitment to
develop the remaining portion of 92,000-acre Babcock Ranch, about
three-quarters of which the company sold to the state as conservation land.

"K&P was faced with a business decision of putting their human resources
toward Babcock Ranch with 40,000-plus home sites or World Woods development
entailing approximately 1,760 home sites," Cooke said. "Babcock Ranch won
out."

Pasquinelli will adhere to another agreement WCI made with the county: to
preserve a cave on the property. The explorers who discovered this cave in
2002 say it is at least 4,000 feet long and contains some of the most
spectacular formations in the Southeast.

World Woods said a professional mapping company found the cave was smaller
than originally thought and had few notable formations.

When MPI does decide to go forward with development, it will face a
time-consuming review process. That is especially true because it qualifies
for the stricter scrutiny of developments larger than 1,000 units, called
developments of regional impact.

"Many additional hurdles need to be addressed before development will
begin," Cooke said.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or (352)754-6116.

 

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