TO: Board of County Commissioners
THROUGH: John A. Titkanich, Jr., County Administrator
THROUGH: Jennifer W. Shuler, County Attorney
FROM: Christopher A. Hicks, Assistant County Attorney
DATE: August 4, 2025
SUBJECT: Sale of Tower Easement and Property near Sea Oaks
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BACKGROUND
In 1988 Indian River County purchased 2.41 acres of property from the developer of Sea Oaks that contained a wastewater treatment facility for $3.1 million. The County operated the wastewater facility until it no longer became useful as services were provided from more centralized locations. Sea Oaks currently leases space on the County’s land for maintenance and office buildings. The County entered a lease with Verizon Wireless in 2007 to use a portion of the land to construct a cell tower and associated equipment, which now includes multiple carriers. This is the only wireless tower on the northern barrier island. The current lease, if not renewed, would expire in 2032. However, Verizon and the other carriers would undoubtedly renew as this being the only tower makes the site very lucrative to them.
Because the land was no longer useful to the County for utility purposes, upon the request of Sea Oaks, through its attorney, Bruce Barkett, the BOCC declared the land surplus on June 18, 2024. The Board further directed staff to negotiate with Sea Oaks for a potential sale of the property. There are structures related to the wastewater treatment facility present on the site. Sea Oaks presented its offer in August of 2024. This offer was for the appraised value of $1.2 million and included deductions for site work to remove the existing structures, bringing the offer down to a price of $852,749. The appraisal excluded the tower as an asset and the offer included contract language that the wireless tower would be demolished after the expiration of the lease in 2032.
The County completed its own appraisal in October that valued the property (also without the tower) at $1.8 million. Sea Oaks noted several items that it believed were deficient in the County’s appraisal. The parties met in January of 2025 to discuss the matter, and Sea Oaks presented a new offer of $859,700. Staff informed Sea Oaks that any sale would be contingent upon either a 99-year or perpetual easement of the tower lease property, both to make sure that the taxpayers are receiving maximum benefit from their investment and that the residents of the barrier island have adequate access to wireless coverage for emergencies and basic communication. At this meeting County staff agreed in principle to recommend the Sea Oaks offer to the Board contingent upon the easement and a few other terms.
The County Attorney’s office and the cell tower consultant recommends that the County sell the cell tower easement prior to the sale of the underlying property to Sea Oaks to ensure the County receives fair compensation and that the County and the public’s interest in the cell tower is protected. Based on this, staff solicited and received an offer from Wireless Edge Towers III LLC for $2,025,000 for a 99-year easement of the current tower property.
When this information was shared with Sea Oaks, it raised concerns about provisions in the easement regarding a right of first refusal and the ability to enlarge the easement in the future. In response, Wireless Edge agreed to remove both provisions from the contract and made an amended offer of $2,100,000 for the existing tower area and approximately 2500 square feet of additional space adjacent to the tower. Sea Oaks has provided updated proposed contract documents that include a lease agreement for the tower property as well as some restrictive language, which is not in line with the easement sale.
Sea Oaks intends to present information concerning their offer at the meeting and have provided the attached PowerPoint presentation for consideration.
ANALYSIS
The property is no longer useful for the original purpose, though the tower site is a particularly valuable asset. Any sale of the property should weigh benefits to the County and financial responsibility. It makes sense to sell the underlying property that is no longer of use, while still capitalizing on the investment and potential of the tower site. The only way to adequately protect the County’s interest is to sell the tower site easement prior to the sale of the underlying land.
BUDGETARY IMPACT
The sale of both items would bring the County approximately $2,959,700 to the Utilities Fund. Proceeds from the land sale would be deposited into the Utilities Fund/Land Sales account, number 471038-369900 for $859,700, while the tower proceeds would be deposited into the Utilities Fund/Tower Sale Proceeds account, number 471038-364025 totaling $2,100,0000.
PREVIOUS BOARD ACTIONS
The Board approved staff negotiating the sale of the property on June 18, 2024.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Recommended Action
County staff recommends that the Board agree to the sale of the 99-year easement to Wireless Edge and direct the County Attorney's Office to negotiate final terms of the attached draft documents.Once the sale of the easement is completed, staff is authorized finalize the sale of the property to Sea Oaks.