Miami Corp. Purchases Restoration Land By Tom Holton, Hometown News

An expansive 6,281-acre wooded tract at the northwest corner of Interstate 95 and State Road 442 in Edgewater has been sold for $16 million, which is about $45 million less than what it sold for in 2013 and $100 million less than it sold for in 2006.

The new owner is Farmton North LLC, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Miami Corp., which also owns the massive 59,000-acre Farmton property that extends from near State Road 442 to Maytown Road and beyond into northern Brevard County.

Known as the Restoration property, the seller was NC CS Hammock Creek LLC, a subsidiary of the investment firm Northstar Realty, which bought the tract in 2013 for $61.5 from Greenfield Partners, which paid $116 million for it in 2006, according to public records.

Stretching into both New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater, the large undeveloped parcel of timber and woodlands is an approved Development of Regional Impact site for residential and commercial developing, including the construction of up 8,500 residential units.

The portion of the land where the 5,187-acre Restoration master-planned community would be built is in Edgewater.

"With the Miami Corp. already owning and developing Deering Park Center, a 900-acre mixed-use development across the road, purchasing the Restoration was a logical move," said Chris Butera, whose Ormond Beach firm, SVN Florida Land Alliance, managed the sale.