Exclusive: Jetta Point in Winter Springs could come up for sale ‘any day,’ hotels targeted

Seminole County is on the verge of getting state approval to sell off the 46-acre Jetta Point Park at the intersection of State Road 417 and State Road 434 in Seminole County – possibly clearing the way for a hotel or other commercial development next to the Cross Seminole Trail.

“It’s the last substantial piece of property on the 417 corridor in Seminole County that could be used for mixed-use or a commercial property,” said Seminole County Commission Chairman Jay Zembower in an interview with Oviedo Community News. “However, if you look at the property, it looks high-and-dry, but there’s wetlands in there. There’s a reason it’s been sitting vacant this long.”

Back in 2018, Seminole County asked the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to sign off on a key swap: Allow the county to sell 46-acre Jetta Point Park at the intersection of State Road 434 and State Road 417 to the highest bidder in exchange for protecting a former golf course in Longwood that could have been developed into homes. 

Seminole County would move the protections – a dedication to public use and declaration of restrictive covenants – in place for Jetta Point Park over to the 97-acre Rolling Hills Golf Course in Longwood for conservation instead. Seminole County also put $1.5 million into a fund to pay for environmental cleanup on the former golf course site. 

Oviedo resident Katrina Shadix drove to Tallahassee and asked the Florida Communities Trust  not to sign off on the deal in 2018. She said the county should be protecting both the former golf course site and Jetta Point Park, and pointed to a bald eagle nest that was found at Jetta Point.  

“That land must be contiguous,” Shadix said, a reference to state rules requiring swaps to get a waiver if the land that’s being exchanged doesn’t touch. “That was my biggest complaint. [Jetta Point] had an active eagle nest on it, and putting (the restrictions) on a friggin’ golf course – come on. Golf courses are some of the most non-environmentally-friendly green spaces we have.”

Shadix ultimately lost the fight, and the state signed off on moving the development restrictions from Jetta Point Park in Winter Springs to Rolling Hills in Longwood. But there were caveats. 

Now that Seminole County has finished environmental remediation at Rolling Hills and is set to start converting it into a community park early next year, the county is asking the state for final approval to sell off Jetta Point Park.

The property is zoned for commercial development in Winter Springs. 

“I hate being right about what government does when they’re destroying stuff,” Shadix said. “I hope the neighbors object to anything being built there now. Hopefully the residents speak out against it, and I remain opposed like I was five years ago.”

What do you want to see the Jetta Point Park site become? Check here to contact Seminole County elected officials about the site, and check here to contact Winter Springs elected officials. Check here to contact the Florida Community Trust board, which initially approved the swap. You can also tell Oviedo Community News what you’d like to see on the site here. 

Could a hotel be coming to Jetta Point Park?

Emails obtained by Oviedo Community News and interviews show that there have been talks about a possible hotel development on the property. 

Winter Springs City Commissioner Victoria Bruce sent an email to an aide for County Commissioner Amy Lockhart on Sept. 5 asking about the property. 

“(Seminole County Commissioner Bob) Dallari had mentioned to me a few months ago that the Jetta Park parcel in Winter Springs may be utilized as (an) economic development with a hotel and that the county was looking into a $25,000 contribution from [Winter Springs] for [an] economic analysis and proposal to obtain bids for hotels,” Bruce wrote. “Do you have any info on steps to move forward with this initiative?”

Separately, Seminole County Deputy Manager Tricia Johnson wrote in an email on Sept. 26 to the county manager, county attorney and Commissioner Lockhart that there have been “rumors” about a hotel for the site. 

“I am not aware of a formal feasibility study, though there have been past rumors that the City (of Winter Springs) may be interested in a hotel at that location,” Johnson wrote. “We discussed this property in our Senior Staff meeting on Wednesday. The Real Estate team is preparing a package so that, once the final arrangements with FDEP are complete, the property can be marketed for sale.” 

Johnson said there are a few final action items on the site: An updated title, updated survey, stormwater maps, and additional noticing.

In an interview with Oviedo Community News, Winter Springs Commissioner Bruce said the idea for a hotel was first mentioned by Dallari. She said she told the Winter Springs city manager to “work with” the county on the project. 

“And (Dallari) contacted me and said we’re looking into having Jetta Point be a hotel … and we’re going to do an economic feasibility study, and we’d really like for the city to go half-and-half on us,” Bruce said. “We each put $25,000 in.” 

Bruce said she is supportive of the idea of a hotel at the intersection.

“I personally think a hotel would be fabulous,” Bruce said. “We need it. I mean, when my mom comes to visit, I’ve got to send her over to UCF.”

There currently is no hotel in the Oviedo or Winter Springs area. Dallari said county staff had been contacted about a possible hotel. 

“Some people have asked us if we’re willing to sell the property to a hotelier,” Dallari said. “And our response is that it’s too early, because the restrictions are still on the property, and until the restrictions get removed and get relocated over to Rolling Hills, it’s really a moot point, because the restrictions are still there.”

Dallari wouldn’t say who the person was that reached out, only that they wanted to put a hotel complex on the property and that they reached out to staff. He said it’s still a “long road to go” to get to selling the property. 

The property is in the City of Winter Springs boundaries, and is currently zoned C-1. That zoning designation does not allow for a hotel, so the property would have to be rezoned first.

Sell it, or change the zoning?

“We need to market this piece of property,” Dallari said. “OK, then they need to go to the city of Winter Springs and say ‘Hey, I want to put a hotel on it. Hey, I want to put an apartment complex on it. I want to put manufacturing on it. I want to put a grocery store.’ I don’t know what anybody wants to do. And so the City of Winter Springs is going to say yes and no to all that.”

Zembower said when he checked with senior staff, there hadn’t been any proposals for a hotel, and any “serious inquiry” would have gotten to senior staff. 

“I’ve checked with our economic development team, and there’s been no request, no interest, no anything in a hotel,” Zembower said. “And our real estate team in the county is waiting for everything to be finalized at the state level before we offer it for sale. It will come back to (the) County Commission before it goes to sale.” 

Lockhart said if Dallari is hearing from people interested in the site, that needs to come before the full board.

“This economic feasibility study that’s out here in the ether – it’s not budgeted,” Lockhart said. “The specificity of asking for contribution for an economic development feasibility study is pretty ballsy on your own as a commissioner,” Lockhart said. “It’s really inappropriate.”

The county did get an unsolicited bid to purchase the property from 2nd Wave Development LLC in 2022. Stephen Gerhard, the vice president of acquisitions for the Tampa-based company in 2022, did not respond to multiple requests for an interview about the project. 2nd Wave Development, though, appears to mainly develop apartment complexes. 

“Florida Statutes … require that the sale of County property may only be sold to the highest and best bidder after approval by the board,” wrote Interim County Manager Bryant Applegate in response to the inquiry, which you can see below.

‘You can take your park and shove it’

The Jetta Point Park property has a more than 20-year history in the county. 

In 2003, Seminole County got $2 million from the Florida Communities Trust to help buy Jetta Point Park and put it into conservation. But when plans for a $10 million park with baseball fields and lights surfaced in 2010, nearby residents packed government meetings to protest the project. 

Joanne Krebs, who served on the Winter Springs City Commission at the time, said the big concerns were traffic and lights. She said it was a little bit “NIMBY,” an acronym for “not in my backyard.”

“It was mainly the noise level, the lighting and bringing in people from all different areas,” Krebs said. “They wanted a neighborhood project. But to them, that wasn’t neighborhood.”

Seminole County Commissioner Amy Lockhart said the original design was similar to what ultimately became the Boombah Sports Complex. When residents rejected the park idea, that left the county in a predicament. 

“The citizens now are telling us, you can take your park and shove it, we don’t want it here,” Lockhart said. 

Whatever happens next, it marks the end of a 20-plus year history for the Jetta Point Park site. 

Another option on the table: Sell Jetta Point to the City of Winter Springs. But Zembower said it would have to be at market rate for the “highest and best use,” and not, as one former commissioner requested, that the county donate the land to the city.

“Happy to have the discussion,” Zembower said. “Knowing what I know about their finances, I don’t know how they could afford it. They’ve got bigger fish to fry.”