Pinellas may team up with Colliers to market its surplus properties

Pinellas County is expected to execute an agreement with Colliers International to market its surplus property, which could generate more than $1 million in revenue for the county. 

On Tuesday, the county commissioners will review a resolution to declare 15 county-owned parcels as surplus and grant authorization to advertise and dispose of the parcels.

Today, the county owns approximately 1,200 parcels, with 110 acres being a potential surplus. The remainder of the properties are parklands, properties containing county buildings providing services or properties required for future projects. Selling, donating or transferring the properties would provide a revenue of more than $1.3 million, according to the Pinellas County Property Appraiser Office’s valuation. 

The revenue generated by the sales will be reinvested into the community by going into the general fund. Staff will reserve the revenues from these and future sales for future real property investments, subject to board approval, according to county documents. 

The surplus parcels range from small, irregular parcels remaining after a project that will be privately sold to adjacent property owners, and residential and commercial developers.

An example of one of the properties is the 118th Avenue assemblage. Image: Pinellas County records

A breakdown of the 15 parcels as described by the county:

• 118th Avenue assemblage: The lot size is four parcels that total 4.25 acres. The property appraiser values it at $158,569; however, the last comparable sale in the area was 4.6 acres on 118th Avenue that sold for $1.8 million in 2020.
• McMullen Booth and Sunset Point: The lot size includes 1.32, 0.54 and 0.52 acres. The property appraiser values it at $735,007. It is recommended to be sold for commercial, multifamily or for an estate.
• Omaha Street: The lot size is 1.15 acres. The property appraiser values it at $212,619. It’s recommended to be purchased for a multifamily or estate.
• 1st Street N., Indian Rocks Beach: It’s an irregular parcel that was inadvertently excluded from surrounding conveyances from the county to Indian Rocks Beach valued at $85. 
• The remaining lots are described as non-buildable lots. 

Colliers has developed an approach to analyzing the county-owned vacant land for its current or future utilization for county purposes such as affordable housing. 

In addition to the Colliers analysis, the property staff is developing a database of all county-owned parcels, determining custodial ownership, and validating current and future county purpose, acquisition funding source, and other attributes to systematically monitor the use of county parcels, according to county documents.