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L.C. Bane

Beach Fanatic
Aug 8, 2017
424
257
Santa Rosa Beach
Seriously?
Back-door deal deprives TDC of Highland House property

A back-door deal for the purchase of the Highlands House bed and breakfast property has deprived Walton County from obtaining land it wanted to use to establish a public beach access on County Road 30A.

A group of people represented at a public meeting last week by attorney Mike Burke “got together and outbid the county” for the property, according to David Demarest, spokesman for the Walton County Tourist Development Council.

Demarest said the five or so neighbors who bought the Highlands House parcel offered about $3.3 million, or $300,000 more than the price the county had negotiated.

“The county wasn’t given an opportunity to counter-offer,” Demarest said.

County commissioners were scheduled to vote Tuesday to finalize the contract to buy the property, but instead removed the item from their meeting agenda. Officials seemed to have few details about the private sale.

“What we know for sure is the property got sold out from under us for significantly more than we would have paid for it,” Demarest said.

County Attorney Sidney Noyes referred questions about the sale to Burke or Robert McGill, another attorney who had argued against the county’s purchase of the Highlands House parcel at the commission’s Nov. 13 meeting.

McGill said he knew nothing about the sale and that none of his clients was involved in the deal.

Burke did not return a phone call.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

steel1man

Beach Fanatic
Jan 10, 2013
2,291
659
Spooky Lane owners defeated the TDC Invasion...took matters into their own hands and Outbid county and beach vendor mafia for 1000’ of beach access and 100’s of beach chair and umbrella setups. Spooky Lane Owners Rock.
 
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