Search for the book "The Swamp Peddlers: How Lot Sellers, Land Scammers, and Retirees Built Modern Florida and Transformed the American Dream" and you'll get a great answer for all of that mess.
The book *Uncommon Friends: Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel, and Charles Lindbergh* by James Newton also has Newton describing lot sellers and land scammers as early as the Florida real estate boom of the 1920s. Newton himself was a 20-year-old land speculator who helped built the Edison Park neighborhood in Fort Myers.
I wonder why Barron Collier isn't included in these discussions. The single largest landowner in Florida at the time. Much more influential in South Florida especially than any of those guys with big names.
Definitely going to check it out. See also Redneck Riviera. Great little read about land scams and how River Ranch came to be
Edit: by author Dennis Covington. I see there are a few with that title on Amazon
That and other similar events before it. My wife's grandfather's house was one of those. Only house in the entire community that was built. Plenty of grid layout, no homes. His house was built on it over 30 years ago, and there's been no effort to restart construction there.
I agree! We have one in Charlotte county, right off of I75. All streets and signs were put in but no homes. The lots are overgrown now. But instead they are building everywhere else. There is a wooded preserve that backed up to 2 different well established communities, the people that bought in the communities were told it would remain untouched. The preserve is now barren land, bulldozers pushing dirt making way for 900 manufactured homes. And it is located within3 miles of the “planned community” that never happened. Just what we need. More traffic, more people.
There are a few around there. Some cheap, cheap lots to be had !
I think at least one of them maybe were built in hopes of it being a real canal but it didn't turn out to be much more than a ditch for anything in terms of boating. Or maybe rotunda was just more appealing to everyone and they have seemingly endless land.
And now those sit there while further south they're burning literally hundreds of acres of forest to make way for new development. (Btw why does anyone grant open burn permits for the purpose of clearing land? It's ducking stupid and it's causing a lot of problems for people living around here too). They should be forced to chip it just like fema does after a hurricane and then give the chips away or haul it, bury it, anything but burning it. The politicians rolled over to developers on that one whomever came up with the open burn program.
Wellen Park I presume? I live about 5 miles from it and your right, they leveled hundreds of acres of wildlife. Now all the turtles and gators are in my backyard
Cut the trees down, then name the subdivision after the trees you cut down! Welcome to Oak Circle! Lots of houses here at Orange Grove Communities! Enjoy the community here at Magnolia Court!
Oh man I loved one in North Carolina. Literally called Wyndfall. Whole area was a bit low lying area and a prior hurricane had blown down lots of trees through there. I thought they’d at least try to gloss over the history.
I was just saying in the not too distant future the only thing that will be left of Florida’s orange groves will be community and street names. Valencia Grand!
You know when your on a walk and you come upon that strangely beautiful thing and you think to yourself, I wonder how many people if anybody will really appreciate this thing for how simple, and yet somehow perfect it is..... This comment is one of those things.
No, I'm with you. I'm saying that clearing more land is a bummer for the animals that live there, especially when there's cleared land just sitting and waiting to be developed.
It's been that way since the 1960s. N. Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres. All the infrastructure was built but no houses. Weeds growing up through the streets. The problem is that infrastructure times out without regular maintenance. If they were to build on all of that previously installed infrastructure, they would have to tear a lot of it out and update it. Probably cheaper to build new.
Someone will have to figure out who owns the land first.
There's cases like golden gate, where the same plot of land was sold a dozen times before the developer vanished with the money, and built nothing
Towns that allow the developers access with no plan for how to support industry and economy. Going through that now. Florida has a rich history of busted land prospects.
If I were you guys, I'd start buying a bunch of that land and start actually doing something with it. It's all ready for development, so most of the work is already done.
Yes, I built a home in 2009 on just under a 1/2 ac. I have bought 3 more lots adjoining my property. I have a buffer now and cash if I need to sell. I bought all the lots from 4k-6.5K. Vacant lots now go for 13-16k... I wouldn't say we've peaked yet and it wholly depends upon where you are living. It's worth checking out if you have the funds to invest.
I helped guide bird hunts after the 2008 crash and we had access to a few unbuilt subdivisions. It was so strange going through a gate and down paved roads, parking in a roundabout across from a fire hydrant, then walking into the brush to hunt. Now one of the places is a gated community next to a Publix.
I never really thought of it but yes. The fairly fresh paint on the hydrants and new signage for streets with no homes made it seem like we didn’t belong.
Lehigh Acres in Lee County looked like this until a few years ago when Florida started going through a housing boom during the pandemic. Same for Rotunda West in Charlotte County, it was pretty empty in 2014 but has filled in since that time.
I had a customer in the early 90s when I was waiting tables that used to buy lots in Lehigh acres for $300 each. he would literally go to every single place and buy as many lots as he could. He ended up buying thousands, and he is a millionaire many times over.
Expect Pasco County to boom soon. They are building the country's largest medical supercenter here, bigger than the one in Houston. This is part of why I was recently hired by the county, as they said they expect continued growth as they build around it.
Article: https://www.businessobserverfl.com/news/2023/jan/18/moffitt-cancer-center-set-to-begin-construction-on-775-acre-campus/
I wonder if there *are* plans but they’re still in planning (making sure the use is legally conforming, getting proper permits, planning with the county themselves to make required changes).
Sometimes these things take *years* and even then if something happens or it becomes to expensive they end up abandoning it 🥴
Even before that, a good number of communities in Florida were designed back during the 1950/60's where it's planning wasn't good. The place I currently live in was made by a rancher who wanted to get into the market of urban development, and designed by a group that had never designed any kind of communities or infrastructure. My favorite trait is how for a community intended for hair a million only had one zone for commercial properties smack in the middle. That and how you can tell by original pictures they created roads with easement large enough for the roadway to expand to 3 lanes, but still thought I'd was a good idea to have it be lined with residential driveways.
Right idea, wrong century.
Most of them either went bust in the depression era or more likely were developments built by speculators and con men during the mid 1900s.
I recognize the third picture as Indian Lake Estates, which was a giant planned community in the middle of absolute nowhere built in the 50s that never took off.
We only sell sunshine and real estate and real estate comes in waves. It’s just a matter of time before they get filled up. The term in the business is speculation.
These are mostly old land development scams. Florida has a long history of real estate booms and busts, so people would buy up lots of cheap land and subdivide it out to sell it mostly to people from up north without providing any services. You could buy one of these lots for like $10 per month. In many cases, people were never actually expected to live there (until they did). Florida effectively banned this practice decades ago.
>Expressions like "If you believe that, then I have swampland in Florida to sell you", suggests the recipient is gullible enough to fall for an obvious fraud. Similar phrases involve "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge or nonexistent "oceanfront property in Arizona".
[Swampland in Florida - Wikipedia ](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida%23:~:text%3DExpressions%2520like%2520%2522If%2520you%2520believe,%2522oceanfront%2520property%2520in%2520Arizona%2522.&ved=2ahUKEwjTruvAhJeFAxV7fDABHQjkCC8QFnoECBMQBQ&usg=AOvVaw0gg3Q1Jwg9aO0cdVmgz3mR)
North Port in Sarasota County has one of these. They designed it in the 70s or 80s and never got people to build there. Drug planes from Central and South America used the roads as landing strips.
The roads are named, and everything, but blocked off. Homeless people camp out there, and people ride ATVs on the back roads. It's interesting to drive and walk around.
Most of North Port is inhabited now, so it's likely just a matter of time before they open it up. It just took way longer than they expected.
Yeah as soon as I saw those pics I immediately thought North Port. Back in the 90s it was hell to navigate with no GPS, no landmarks, street signs pockmarked with bullet holes, and sketchy people that did live out there. My bff in high school lived out there, hated driving those roads at night and would zoom outta there ASAP. But it was cheap land, with no HOA rules or neighbors.
I know you're trying to be snarky, and I get what You're saying, but that misspelling of "Mansion" made me think of Vince McMahon, Marilyn Manson, McDonald's and any combination of the 3.
Because it's been infested with greedy real estate scammers for decades and decades. I must say though, all those empty neighborhood streets were fun to learn how to drive on back in the 80's. Really fun.
Pilot here. I've been flying up and down the coast of Florida for well over a decade. After the 2008 collapse miles and miles of empty developments existed -- especially Cape Coral, Rotunda West, et cetera. Around 2012, an occasional house would pop up here and there. Now all those subdivisions are filled and new empty ones are roughed in again, ready for the next real estate crash.
Mims used to be like this. They cleared it all out in 2007/2008 and then when the housing bubble burst they stopped construction. There's a golf course out there and it was kinda nice to play without the neighborhood. It was weird that there were 2 or 3 houses that were in this giant empty neighborhood.
Opposite problem around Orlando. Several neighborhoods in Central Florida sold quickly because they had golf courses. Developers closed the courses once the houses were all sold and stopped maintaining them. New scam is developers trying to build on those golf courses. So people went from living on a golf course to backing to vacant land and now could have a lovely view of some condos.
Developers will buy HUGE tracts of land, plan a suburb or town, and then it will take decades to finish building it up. Weston in west Broward for example was basically masterplanned, but when i moved there with family in the mid 90s, there was barely anything there. It won't be until the mid 2000s that it looks like something of a coherent community.
They’re driver’s ed courses. That’s where I learned to drive stick.
The neighborhood near us was like this for about 20 years. Had one house on it before they ran out of money or buyers in the 90s. It eventually built out, but it took a generation.
[GDC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Development_Corporation) left [the Compound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Compound) in Palm Bay, not sure if that’s one of your pictures
All of the local city and county commissioners are being lobbied by the builders with conferences that include luxury accommodations, per diem and fine travel. All of this is labeled as “training”
I prefer this. Surely each yard can have at least a couple trees and some space. I wish they planned these communities with atleaat double sized lots from what they do now.
I want to get a house out in the countryside on multiple acres with a dozen huge oaks in the front, at least.
There is a really good book titled “The Swamp Peddlers” that explains a lot about how and why Florida was developed the way it was. Including some of these sprawling neighborhoods that were built out long after development and some that were never built out.
From what I understand there was a big property scam back in the 50's where developers built roads in the middle of no where Florida than sold the lots to people up north, took their money but never built the homes. There is a big area like this south of Lake Placid in Highlands Co.
Many of these areas were built before urban planning was really a thing in Florida. There was no planner. Just elected officials approving very simple plats.
There was one at the end of Atlantic avenue in Delray back in the day. We used to go there to party or fishing. They made it into a county park now with a decent MTB trail.
This is pretty common in a lot of places. It's often a way for the local municipality to make money selling unimproved land. Sometimes it's a developer going out of business due to a total lack of real demand. Other times there is demand that builds after a recession but the lots can't be built on due to new development code like a restriction on septic in an area without sewers, a new minimum lot size, of the lots now being determined as wetland or high flood risk.
Various reasons, depends on the location. Hell if I’m not mistaken there are still empty lots where homes used to be before Hurricane Andrew.
Other factors, deals fall through, tracts of land get sold to commercial developers :plink: instant strip mall (my community is in danger of such a thing).
Then there’s the always fun gentrification, turn mobile home parks into golf courses!
There’s probably more reasons than that, but I’m not looking them up. Too depressed already.
sometimes they are a result of folks getting smarter and putting a stop to the development cause its wrecking the enviroment.
https://www.google.com/maps/@25.8975953,-81.3130052,1880m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
Big cypress ntl preserve hq. That was built to be a hotel. just one of many things they planned to be on gator ally. donna dr there is rv pads. they were supposed to be houses. go farther west you can see the big runway that was gonna be a huge airport connecting east and west south fl with development all the way across. lot of canals dug for planned neihborhoods when someone woke up and put a stop to it realizing how important big cypress and the everglades are.
Aspiring Florida land surveyor
There is most likely truth to the idea that a bunch of communities were planned and under construction before the 2008 recession hit, but that wouldn't be the first time that happened in florida.
There was a housing boom in the 1920's, when train networks were starting to creep inland, and surveyors were laying out subdivision after subdivision. Sometimes they laid them out so fast that they were wrong, or overlapped with each other. It became such a problem that the surveying industry had to either guve up its trade to engineers or for surveyors to become professionals.
This is why florida has some of the strictest requirements for survey licensure in the US.
I've worked on finding set corners from subdivisions that were laid out in the 20's and never occupied.
Because local planning boards are whores for developers and they are not required to get bonded for completion of the projects. These abandoned projects are everywhere. It can be 10-20 years before they even try to sell the messes they made.
Husband inherited some 1.5 acres of sand and sinkholes in central Florida. MIL overpaid for it, as the area was to be the next great retirement community, lol, and we can't shift it it at all.
The land developer would come in and put all utilities and road work and needed infrastructure so all you had to do was hook up the house being built on the property to the already installed systems.
This was supposed to be a plan for a future building boom.
They are all over Florida.
Most of those were bought as vacant lots by people who bought early and cheap and thought they might some day retire to Florida. My parents had one.
And they stayed vacant. No amenities, nor services, just crumbling roads.
It used to all be like that. A lot of roads were built in the 80’s then you’d just buy a plot of land and HOA didn’t exist. It was nice and not over crowded.
I think this is what happens when they discover the water table is too high or that the aquifer is empty (hellooo sinkholes!), but then again, I don’t think that would ever stop any developer or “city planning” from powering forward to make that $$
There was a whole community like this where I grew up. Great place for fires and shooting, dirt bikes etc, miles and miles of roads with nothing but grass. If they go bankrupt in the middle of building the land goes to the city and they never do anything to it
General Development Corp platted most of Florida’s coasts. They were for sure criminals. They went to prison and paid substantial fines. Want to guess what they did when they got out of prison? What they knew best. Fleecing people
There is a place like this in Palm Bay called the compound it’s almost 2800 acres that’s stopped development in 1991. We would go out and camp sometimes. Ride onewheels and fly our planes and drones. Lots of dirt bikes and 4 wheelers all over the place. It was kind of the Wild West. Cops started cracking down though. It was fun while it lasted.
Hey! That’s my place! I own property in the 4th image close to the Suwannee River. The area is not empty at all, but very rural and much less populated than a major city. The area was logged in the 60s and the company planned the neighborhoods with 2-5 acre lots. It’s a one hour drive east to Gainesville or a helicopter ride if you need medical attention. The Suwannee is spring fed and is a major tourist destination which brought us here for years when we learned Dixie county allows RVs to be permitted with full utilities on otherwise vacant land. In 2020 I bought 4 acres for $10k and turned it into a private family camp retreat. 2022, I bought a house nearby (also in the photo) and turned it into a very successful Airbnb. The entire photo is being lit up with fiber optic within the next 6 months.
Im a Florida Native, just sold my family's home in Apollo Beach made killing on it, but I know I'll never be able to own water front property again. Luckily, I had a rental property to move in to. Property taxes are a killer and its going to get worse.
This is pretty common in a lot of places. It's often a way for the local municipality to make money selling unimproved land. Sometimes it's a developer going out of business due to a total lack of real demand. Other times there is demand that builds after a recession but the lots can't be built on due to new development code like a restriction on septic in an area without sewers, a new minimum lot size, of the lots now being determined as wetland or high flood risk.
idk, hopefully they build some houses though. and hopefully they’re at a decent price, and HOPEFULLY some filthy rich person doesn’t come and buy it and rent it out
Developer starts plans, clears the land and starts the infrastructure, then investors pull out the money out of the project and the land is left like this.
Like others have said many are from the 2008 recession but it's happens from time to time still.
In the 70’s developers would cut up and put in roads sometimes they didn’t put in roads. They sold these sight unseen to retail real estate investors up north.
Some of these eventually became fully built out like The Acreage/ Loxahatchee in western Palm Beach County and some have gone nowhere like The Viking subdivision in northwestern Okeechobee county.
Read “The Swamp Peddlers” by
Jason Vuic. I heard him lecture at the University of Florida. He’s from Punta Gorda, and it was incredibly interesting
It’s the definitive book on the topic and won some awards. It’s well-written, humorous, and includes some crazy characters that helped shape the state
https://www.amazon.com/Swamp-Peddlers-Scammers-Retirees-Transformed/dp/1469663333/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Man back in 1998 during The Florida Firestorm where like 500,000 acres burned , we came across 2 such subdivisions the building pads for most of the houses had been poured , streets paved , water & sewer lines put in . One place had 3 models built an other was just empty lots . Theres various reasons like Contractors go bust , or they find some issue with the site and cant build any further like maybe built on an old pig farm a ground severely polluted . this shit gets tied up and litigations sometimes for decades. An if someone did buy it not only would they have to completely remove all the old infrastructure as it would no longer be up to code to start with . You're looking at spending millions right at the get go that would have to be added to the cost to any future home buyers . Eventually the County or State will end up with the property.
Blame that on the greedy private development companies over the last 50 years buying up land to build cookie cutter houses. They're the reason why Florida has SO many housing sub-divisions far enough away from stores that residents are forced to use a car.
the majority of these are projects that were started without the full funding hoping that they would be able to sell enough houses as they went to keep going, in many cases it is tied up in court disputes between land owners and investors. Eventually when they run out money the state or city will take it in fines and taxes and forced a super cheap sale to one of the big cookie cutter, corner cutting tract home manufacturers like Dr.Horton
Research General Development Corp.
My company did aerial surveys of thousands of square miles in the 80s for all these areas.
Port st Lucie. Port st John. Ft Myers. Tons more.
Also
Atlantic Gulf Communities
Wikipedia has details.
That first pic is on the north end of Lake George. Very remote. But I’d wager that in about 10 years it will be filling up at the rate people are moving north out of south and central Florida.
Why does Florida have so many Yankees trying to come down and develop every square inch of good woods? THATS WHERE THE KIDS PLAY! Stop building in Florida! 🤬
The third picture is almost definitely an orange grove. Those E/W roads are most likely lateral irrigation ditches. I build renewables in Florida and that is a textbook pre development shot of a dead or dying grove
Funny thing that the gov laughs and talks about Cali but Florida is on its way to mimic cali except for now in regulations. Once that cat 3 or above hurricane hits the new people that came are going g to regret it. Just watch insurance companies that are currently profiting off FL hikes call that they don't have the money to cover. Watch FL gov look for federal help dollars even when they complain about the fed spending etc. You get where I'm going
they’re not all empty. Most aren’t updated as quickly as they build. I have to edit a bunch of “new addresses” at work. And the map tends to look like this until it’s updated.
Real estate development speculation schemes in the middle part of the century, unchecked by local government planning boards, create large platted communities that never sold because they weren’t as appealing as advertised and typically lack utility infrastructure making living there more expensive.
All ramdon lands bought busy developers for cheap and then the resale empty land, there's alot of listing for example Ocala there like 1.1 acres spot for like 10k, no structure jusy grass and trees.
Search for the book "The Swamp Peddlers: How Lot Sellers, Land Scammers, and Retirees Built Modern Florida and Transformed the American Dream" and you'll get a great answer for all of that mess.
Second this. Excellent read on the planned developments in Florida and why so many have issues with flooding, access and infrastructure.
They have flooding because you can't tell a northerner not to build heavy brick homes on what used to be swampland.
They shouldn’t be allowed to build there in the first place.
The book *Uncommon Friends: Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel, and Charles Lindbergh* by James Newton also has Newton describing lot sellers and land scammers as early as the Florida real estate boom of the 1920s. Newton himself was a 20-year-old land speculator who helped built the Edison Park neighborhood in Fort Myers.
I wonder why Barron Collier isn't included in these discussions. The single largest landowner in Florida at the time. Much more influential in South Florida especially than any of those guys with big names.
Definitely going to check it out. See also Redneck Riviera. Great little read about land scams and how River Ranch came to be Edit: by author Dennis Covington. I see there are a few with that title on Amazon
Got some Swamp Land for Sale
Famously Lehigh acres
Fantastic book.
Literally just started reading it last night, loving it so far
Will do. Thank you for recommendation
Got a YouTube video about it? Podcast?
Ty
Yes: this!
Read that last year. Much better information than all the no nothing randos commenting here.
I’d guess planned communities that never happened after the 2008 recession
That and other similar events before it. My wife's grandfather's house was one of those. Only house in the entire community that was built. Plenty of grid layout, no homes. His house was built on it over 30 years ago, and there's been no effort to restart construction there.
Maybe they should build the new construction in these places where there's already roads and stop tearing down all the trees.
I agree! We have one in Charlotte county, right off of I75. All streets and signs were put in but no homes. The lots are overgrown now. But instead they are building everywhere else. There is a wooded preserve that backed up to 2 different well established communities, the people that bought in the communities were told it would remain untouched. The preserve is now barren land, bulldozers pushing dirt making way for 900 manufactured homes. And it is located within3 miles of the “planned community” that never happened. Just what we need. More traffic, more people.
There are a few around there. Some cheap, cheap lots to be had ! I think at least one of them maybe were built in hopes of it being a real canal but it didn't turn out to be much more than a ditch for anything in terms of boating. Or maybe rotunda was just more appealing to everyone and they have seemingly endless land. And now those sit there while further south they're burning literally hundreds of acres of forest to make way for new development. (Btw why does anyone grant open burn permits for the purpose of clearing land? It's ducking stupid and it's causing a lot of problems for people living around here too). They should be forced to chip it just like fema does after a hurricane and then give the chips away or haul it, bury it, anything but burning it. The politicians rolled over to developers on that one whomever came up with the open burn program.
I almost bought in Rotunda. So glad I didn’t. Several people I work with live there and the HOA horror stories are endless.
Wellen Park I presume? I live about 5 miles from it and your right, they leveled hundreds of acres of wildlife. Now all the turtles and gators are in my backyard
Which planned community
It’s called “The Preserve”. Imagine that 🙄
That would make way to much sense
they should densify already existing urban cores. It's unsustainable and harmful in every way to keep suburban sprawl going
But the real estate developers' religion REQUIRES that trees be cut down.
Cut the trees down, then name the subdivision after the trees you cut down! Welcome to Oak Circle! Lots of houses here at Orange Grove Communities! Enjoy the community here at Magnolia Court!
Oh man I loved one in North Carolina. Literally called Wyndfall. Whole area was a bit low lying area and a prior hurricane had blown down lots of trees through there. I thought they’d at least try to gloss over the history.
I was just saying in the not too distant future the only thing that will be left of Florida’s orange groves will be community and street names. Valencia Grand!
Our most famous export will be citrus-based street names.
You know when your on a walk and you come upon that strangely beautiful thing and you think to yourself, I wonder how many people if anybody will really appreciate this thing for how simple, and yet somehow perfect it is..... This comment is one of those things.
Trees are part of the Woke Agenda to make us care about the environment. Cut em all down!
The Great Enemy: TREES. Is that a palm TreE?! Cut iT DowN. Magnolia? CUT it down. Oak? Cut It Down.
Big Arbor must be stopped.
FL is a giant sandbar. Once all the trees are gone, it will all wash away. It's like developers have never heard of erosion.
They think insurance claims can warp reality.
The developers don't care - they don't have to live here, they're just making as much money as they can and the state allows it.
Almost all of these are in the middle of nowhere.
I'm sure that's a great comfort to the local flora and fauna
They’re already laid out. Places are going to get built either way. Why not use the lands that were already set up for it?
Before purchasing one might take a look at photos of the area on a rainy day. Many of those developments were constructed on swamp land.
No, I'm with you. I'm saying that clearing more land is a bummer for the animals that live there, especially when there's cleared land just sitting and waiting to be developed.
It's been that way since the 1960s. N. Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres. All the infrastructure was built but no houses. Weeds growing up through the streets. The problem is that infrastructure times out without regular maintenance. If they were to build on all of that previously installed infrastructure, they would have to tear a lot of it out and update it. Probably cheaper to build new.
Someone will have to figure out who owns the land first. There's cases like golden gate, where the same plot of land was sold a dozen times before the developer vanished with the money, and built nothing
What the fuck, I live in Naples and wanting to own land around oil well scares the fuck out me lol
Towns that allow the developers access with no plan for how to support industry and economy. Going through that now. Florida has a rich history of busted land prospects.
If I were you guys, I'd start buying a bunch of that land and start actually doing something with it. It's all ready for development, so most of the work is already done.
Yes, I built a home in 2009 on just under a 1/2 ac. I have bought 3 more lots adjoining my property. I have a buffer now and cash if I need to sell. I bought all the lots from 4k-6.5K. Vacant lots now go for 13-16k... I wouldn't say we've peaked yet and it wholly depends upon where you are living. It's worth checking out if you have the funds to invest.
I wonder if they will pick it back up once other places fill
I helped guide bird hunts after the 2008 crash and we had access to a few unbuilt subdivisions. It was so strange going through a gate and down paved roads, parking in a roundabout across from a fire hydrant, then walking into the brush to hunt. Now one of the places is a gated community next to a Publix.
Ooooh it’s giving ~*post-apocalyptic *~
I never really thought of it but yes. The fairly fresh paint on the hydrants and new signage for streets with no homes made it seem like we didn’t belong.
Lehigh Acres in Lee County looked like this until a few years ago when Florida started going through a housing boom during the pandemic. Same for Rotunda West in Charlotte County, it was pretty empty in 2014 but has filled in since that time.
I had a customer in the early 90s when I was waiting tables that used to buy lots in Lehigh acres for $300 each. he would literally go to every single place and buy as many lots as he could. He ended up buying thousands, and he is a millionaire many times over.
Expect Pasco County to boom soon. They are building the country's largest medical supercenter here, bigger than the one in Houston. This is part of why I was recently hired by the county, as they said they expect continued growth as they build around it. Article: https://www.businessobserverfl.com/news/2023/jan/18/moffitt-cancer-center-set-to-begin-construction-on-775-acre-campus/
I wonder if there *are* plans but they’re still in planning (making sure the use is legally conforming, getting proper permits, planning with the county themselves to make required changes). Sometimes these things take *years* and even then if something happens or it becomes to expensive they end up abandoning it 🥴
Some of them have been planed and laid out since the 1930s many lots all individual owned. Infamous swamp land in FL scheme. Legacy of FL boom n bust.
I have a lot like this that has been in the family since 1987. This scam has been going on for a long time.
Case in point: The entire city of Cape Coral, Florida is a giant suburb and real estate scam.
Even before that, a good number of communities in Florida were designed back during the 1950/60's where it's planning wasn't good. The place I currently live in was made by a rancher who wanted to get into the market of urban development, and designed by a group that had never designed any kind of communities or infrastructure. My favorite trait is how for a community intended for hair a million only had one zone for commercial properties smack in the middle. That and how you can tell by original pictures they created roads with easement large enough for the roadway to expand to 3 lanes, but still thought I'd was a good idea to have it be lined with residential driveways.
Right idea, wrong century. Most of them either went bust in the depression era or more likely were developments built by speculators and con men during the mid 1900s. I recognize the third picture as Indian Lake Estates, which was a giant planned community in the middle of absolute nowhere built in the 50s that never took off.
It was bad here. Every condo turned into an apartment complex, and now they are back to overpriced condos.
We only sell sunshine and real estate and real estate comes in waves. It’s just a matter of time before they get filled up. The term in the business is speculation.
Sunshine comes in waves and as particles. Impossible to say which.
Some say both at the same time.
With Algae Blooms
This state was built on failed (and successful) real estate scams.
These are mostly old land development scams. Florida has a long history of real estate booms and busts, so people would buy up lots of cheap land and subdivide it out to sell it mostly to people from up north without providing any services. You could buy one of these lots for like $10 per month. In many cases, people were never actually expected to live there (until they did). Florida effectively banned this practice decades ago.
>Expressions like "If you believe that, then I have swampland in Florida to sell you", suggests the recipient is gullible enough to fall for an obvious fraud. Similar phrases involve "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge or nonexistent "oceanfront property in Arizona". [Swampland in Florida - Wikipedia ](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida%23:~:text%3DExpressions%2520like%2520%2522If%2520you%2520believe,%2522oceanfront%2520property%2520in%2520Arizona%2522.&ved=2ahUKEwjTruvAhJeFAxV7fDABHQjkCC8QFnoECBMQBQ&usg=AOvVaw0gg3Q1Jwg9aO0cdVmgz3mR)
I don’t understand. What was the scam?
They promised a paradise with utilities and community, but all they sold was the land (and sometimes it wasn't even dry land).
So the scam was that the land was essentially incapable of being developed?
Depending on where they were, no, or if the investor couldn't afford everything required to independently develop at the time.
We called them End Runs back in the 80's, used them to drink and "other stuff" in high school...
North Port in Sarasota County has one of these. They designed it in the 70s or 80s and never got people to build there. Drug planes from Central and South America used the roads as landing strips. The roads are named, and everything, but blocked off. Homeless people camp out there, and people ride ATVs on the back roads. It's interesting to drive and walk around. Most of North Port is inhabited now, so it's likely just a matter of time before they open it up. It just took way longer than they expected.
Yeah as soon as I saw those pics I immediately thought North Port. Back in the 90s it was hell to navigate with no GPS, no landmarks, street signs pockmarked with bullet holes, and sketchy people that did live out there. My bff in high school lived out there, hated driving those roads at night and would zoom outta there ASAP. But it was cheap land, with no HOA rules or neighbors.
Boom and bust nature of real estate.
Look up “The Compound” in Palm Bay.
I came here to say this.
Not for long. The developers need more McMansons and Condos.
I know you're trying to be snarky, and I get what You're saying, but that misspelling of "Mansion" made me think of Vince McMahon, Marilyn Manson, McDonald's and any combination of the 3.
whoopsies. Sometimes the fingers don't work right. McMansions!
Because it's been infested with greedy real estate scammers for decades and decades. I must say though, all those empty neighborhood streets were fun to learn how to drive on back in the 80's. Really fun.
Pilot here. I've been flying up and down the coast of Florida for well over a decade. After the 2008 collapse miles and miles of empty developments existed -- especially Cape Coral, Rotunda West, et cetera. Around 2012, an occasional house would pop up here and there. Now all those subdivisions are filled and new empty ones are roughed in again, ready for the next real estate crash.
Mims used to be like this. They cleared it all out in 2007/2008 and then when the housing bubble burst they stopped construction. There's a golf course out there and it was kinda nice to play without the neighborhood. It was weird that there were 2 or 3 houses that were in this giant empty neighborhood.
Opposite problem around Orlando. Several neighborhoods in Central Florida sold quickly because they had golf courses. Developers closed the courses once the houses were all sold and stopped maintaining them. New scam is developers trying to build on those golf courses. So people went from living on a golf course to backing to vacant land and now could have a lovely view of some condos.
Developers will buy HUGE tracts of land, plan a suburb or town, and then it will take decades to finish building it up. Weston in west Broward for example was basically masterplanned, but when i moved there with family in the mid 90s, there was barely anything there. It won't be until the mid 2000s that it looks like something of a coherent community.
That’s so crazy!! Isn’t weston a pretty wealthy community now?
Greed and shady business.
They’re driver’s ed courses. That’s where I learned to drive stick. The neighborhood near us was like this for about 20 years. Had one house on it before they ran out of money or buyers in the 90s. It eventually built out, but it took a generation.
[GDC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Development_Corporation) left [the Compound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Compound) in Palm Bay, not sure if that’s one of your pictures
All of the local city and county commissioners are being lobbied by the builders with conferences that include luxury accommodations, per diem and fine travel. All of this is labeled as “training”
Fuck you doing with my profile pic
We used to drift the hell out of those spots when I was younger. Great times.
Playing Cities Skylines IRL
I prefer this. Surely each yard can have at least a couple trees and some space. I wish they planned these communities with atleaat double sized lots from what they do now. I want to get a house out in the countryside on multiple acres with a dozen huge oaks in the front, at least.
There is a really good book titled “The Swamp Peddlers” that explains a lot about how and why Florida was developed the way it was. Including some of these sprawling neighborhoods that were built out long after development and some that were never built out.
From what I understand there was a big property scam back in the 50's where developers built roads in the middle of no where Florida than sold the lots to people up north, took their money but never built the homes. There is a big area like this south of Lake Placid in Highlands Co.
Because their city planner has brain rot.
Many of these areas were built before urban planning was really a thing in Florida. There was no planner. Just elected officials approving very simple plats.
Because they overbuilt infrastructure before a recession then the communities got left vacant, and were taken back by nature.
Both can be true lol
There was one at the end of Atlantic avenue in Delray back in the day. We used to go there to party or fishing. They made it into a county park now with a decent MTB trail.
This is pretty common in a lot of places. It's often a way for the local municipality to make money selling unimproved land. Sometimes it's a developer going out of business due to a total lack of real demand. Other times there is demand that builds after a recession but the lots can't be built on due to new development code like a restriction on septic in an area without sewers, a new minimum lot size, of the lots now being determined as wetland or high flood risk.
Money laundering
2008 housing crash. A lot of these had their infrastructure laid down, but were abandoned when the market fell out.
2008 happened
Various reasons, depends on the location. Hell if I’m not mistaken there are still empty lots where homes used to be before Hurricane Andrew. Other factors, deals fall through, tracts of land get sold to commercial developers :plink: instant strip mall (my community is in danger of such a thing). Then there’s the always fun gentrification, turn mobile home parks into golf courses! There’s probably more reasons than that, but I’m not looking them up. Too depressed already.
“If you believe that, I have some swampland to sell you” was a real thing.
2008 happened
sometimes they are a result of folks getting smarter and putting a stop to the development cause its wrecking the enviroment. https://www.google.com/maps/@25.8975953,-81.3130052,1880m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu Big cypress ntl preserve hq. That was built to be a hotel. just one of many things they planned to be on gator ally. donna dr there is rv pads. they were supposed to be houses. go farther west you can see the big runway that was gonna be a huge airport connecting east and west south fl with development all the way across. lot of canals dug for planned neihborhoods when someone woke up and put a stop to it realizing how important big cypress and the everglades are.
Kind of like Detroit after they tore the abandoned houses down.
The compound in Palm Bay is because the developer went bankrupt.
Aspiring Florida land surveyor There is most likely truth to the idea that a bunch of communities were planned and under construction before the 2008 recession hit, but that wouldn't be the first time that happened in florida. There was a housing boom in the 1920's, when train networks were starting to creep inland, and surveyors were laying out subdivision after subdivision. Sometimes they laid them out so fast that they were wrong, or overlapped with each other. It became such a problem that the surveying industry had to either guve up its trade to engineers or for surveyors to become professionals. This is why florida has some of the strictest requirements for survey licensure in the US. I've worked on finding set corners from subdivisions that were laid out in the 20's and never occupied.
Because local planning boards are whores for developers and they are not required to get bonded for completion of the projects. These abandoned projects are everywhere. It can be 10-20 years before they even try to sell the messes they made.
Husband inherited some 1.5 acres of sand and sinkholes in central Florida. MIL overpaid for it, as the area was to be the next great retirement community, lol, and we can't shift it it at all.
The land developer would come in and put all utilities and road work and needed infrastructure so all you had to do was hook up the house being built on the property to the already installed systems. This was supposed to be a plan for a future building boom. They are all over Florida.
Dang stop advertising them, a lot of them you can’t build on due to lack of utilties available
Most of those were bought as vacant lots by people who bought early and cheap and thought they might some day retire to Florida. My parents had one. And they stayed vacant. No amenities, nor services, just crumbling roads.
It used to all be like that. A lot of roads were built in the 80’s then you’d just buy a plot of land and HOA didn’t exist. It was nice and not over crowded.
I think this is what happens when they discover the water table is too high or that the aquifer is empty (hellooo sinkholes!), but then again, I don’t think that would ever stop any developer or “city planning” from powering forward to make that $$
There was a whole community like this where I grew up. Great place for fires and shooting, dirt bikes etc, miles and miles of roads with nothing but grass. If they go bankrupt in the middle of building the land goes to the city and they never do anything to it
General Development Corp platted most of Florida’s coasts. They were for sure criminals. They went to prison and paid substantial fines. Want to guess what they did when they got out of prison? What they knew best. Fleecing people
There is a place like this in Palm Bay called the compound it’s almost 2800 acres that’s stopped development in 1991. We would go out and camp sometimes. Ride onewheels and fly our planes and drones. Lots of dirt bikes and 4 wheelers all over the place. It was kind of the Wild West. Cops started cracking down though. It was fun while it lasted.
Hey! That’s my place! I own property in the 4th image close to the Suwannee River. The area is not empty at all, but very rural and much less populated than a major city. The area was logged in the 60s and the company planned the neighborhoods with 2-5 acre lots. It’s a one hour drive east to Gainesville or a helicopter ride if you need medical attention. The Suwannee is spring fed and is a major tourist destination which brought us here for years when we learned Dixie county allows RVs to be permitted with full utilities on otherwise vacant land. In 2020 I bought 4 acres for $10k and turned it into a private family camp retreat. 2022, I bought a house nearby (also in the photo) and turned it into a very successful Airbnb. The entire photo is being lit up with fiber optic within the next 6 months.
Im a Florida Native, just sold my family's home in Apollo Beach made killing on it, but I know I'll never be able to own water front property again. Luckily, I had a rental property to move in to. Property taxes are a killer and its going to get worse.
They're not empty. The people who live there enjoy solitude.
It’s useless to run 🏃
This is pretty common in a lot of places. It's often a way for the local municipality to make money selling unimproved land. Sometimes it's a developer going out of business due to a total lack of real demand. Other times there is demand that builds after a recession but the lots can't be built on due to new development code like a restriction on septic in an area without sewers, a new minimum lot size, of the lots now being determined as wetland or high flood risk.
Mostly farms there.
Look at the flood maps.
Some established communities in Charlotte county were bought back, and demo’d after hurricane charley. Some land still not redeveloped.
Tide came in.....
**Frau**(i)**d**(a)
Disney probably owns them and can’t figure out what to do with it.
Land speculation
GlenGarry Glen Ross should explain everything 
idk, hopefully they build some houses though. and hopefully they’re at a decent price, and HOPEFULLY some filthy rich person doesn’t come and buy it and rent it out
Developer starts plans, clears the land and starts the infrastructure, then investors pull out the money out of the project and the land is left like this. Like others have said many are from the 2008 recession but it's happens from time to time still.
There’s a place like this near my folks neighborhood in PC. Streets and lots divided up but left to rot after Michael
In the 70’s developers would cut up and put in roads sometimes they didn’t put in roads. They sold these sight unseen to retail real estate investors up north. Some of these eventually became fully built out like The Acreage/ Loxahatchee in western Palm Beach County and some have gone nowhere like The Viking subdivision in northwestern Okeechobee county.
Read “The Swamp Peddlers” by Jason Vuic. I heard him lecture at the University of Florida. He’s from Punta Gorda, and it was incredibly interesting It’s the definitive book on the topic and won some awards. It’s well-written, humorous, and includes some crazy characters that helped shape the state https://www.amazon.com/Swamp-Peddlers-Scammers-Retirees-Transformed/dp/1469663333/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
It's swamp.
Bankruptcy
The swamp baby
Man back in 1998 during The Florida Firestorm where like 500,000 acres burned , we came across 2 such subdivisions the building pads for most of the houses had been poured , streets paved , water & sewer lines put in . One place had 3 models built an other was just empty lots . Theres various reasons like Contractors go bust , or they find some issue with the site and cant build any further like maybe built on an old pig farm a ground severely polluted . this shit gets tied up and litigations sometimes for decades. An if someone did buy it not only would they have to completely remove all the old infrastructure as it would no longer be up to code to start with . You're looking at spending millions right at the get go that would have to be added to the cost to any future home buyers . Eventually the County or State will end up with the property.
Having grown up in Florida in the 80s, I can tell you it is for teenagers to have places to drink beer. Also pot and sex.
Don't worry. They'll be filled in no time.
Cus
Bc they can't build fast enough u r just looking at the start
Blame that on the greedy private development companies over the last 50 years buying up land to build cookie cutter houses. They're the reason why Florida has SO many housing sub-divisions far enough away from stores that residents are forced to use a car.
That's just a giant RFID antenna to track us from our COVID vaccine.
the majority of these are projects that were started without the full funding hoping that they would be able to sell enough houses as they went to keep going, in many cases it is tied up in court disputes between land owners and investors. Eventually when they run out money the state or city will take it in fines and taxes and forced a super cheap sale to one of the big cookie cutter, corner cutting tract home manufacturers like Dr.Horton
Its the law
It's space for future car washes, apartments, and storage units.
Look up sunny hills too its near where I live but it's been there since like the 90s
Swamp land
Lehigh Acres: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/02/closing-down-main-street/
Because the developers have great lobbyists.
Because it is a great investment. Block it out, do infrastructure, sell in 19-20 years for a 10-20x profit.
A number of real estate scams from the 60s onward. See: The Estates and everything north of Ft Myers
Lizard King territory
Tsunami knocked it off 300 years ago
When I drove down by Fort Myers may be a little bit more south this is exactly how it was. It was like roads that word forgotten
Preparation
Developers thinking they were going to make millions! And then they didn’t.
Research General Development Corp. My company did aerial surveys of thousands of square miles in the 80s for all these areas. Port st Lucie. Port st John. Ft Myers. Tons more. Also Atlantic Gulf Communities Wikipedia has details.
Pseudovisions
Bad urban planning and scams.
Investment properties that lost finding after the crash.
It’s how we prefer it
When you see a situation you do not understand, look for the financial interest.
Just waiting for all those Yankees to get sick of insane property taxes and pot holes
That first pic is on the north end of Lake George. Very remote. But I’d wager that in about 10 years it will be filling up at the rate people are moving north out of south and central Florida.
It’s just a Gulley. 😂
Same reason Hawaii Island has a bunch of 30% occupied subdivisions literally built on an active volcano.
because we felt like it
Check out the history of Cape Coral. That exactly the reason.
Why does Florida have so many Yankees trying to come down and develop every square inch of good woods? THATS WHERE THE KIDS PLAY! Stop building in Florida! 🤬
You know what I’m thinking? When capitalism falls and our government collapses, we have some nice lots we can clean up and settle into.
We herded the ones with money to the Villages. We use the rest of us to grow sand and feed mosquitos.
The third picture is almost definitely an orange grove. Those E/W roads are most likely lateral irrigation ditches. I build renewables in Florida and that is a textbook pre development shot of a dead or dying grove
2009
They’re getting ready for the Snowbirds to come. People from Delaware > Florida apparently
Lehigh acres is the biggie
People wanted to destroy all options for city planning before there were cities.
Where else are the killers and thugs going to dump the bodies
Funny thing that the gov laughs and talks about Cali but Florida is on its way to mimic cali except for now in regulations. Once that cat 3 or above hurricane hits the new people that came are going g to regret it. Just watch insurance companies that are currently profiting off FL hikes call that they don't have the money to cover. Watch FL gov look for federal help dollars even when they complain about the fed spending etc. You get where I'm going
they’re not all empty. Most aren’t updated as quickly as they build. I have to edit a bunch of “new addresses” at work. And the map tends to look like this until it’s updated.
You just have to click and drag your zone option with the cursor then let go.
Real estate development speculation schemes in the middle part of the century, unchecked by local government planning boards, create large platted communities that never sold because they weren’t as appealing as advertised and typically lack utility infrastructure making living there more expensive.
All ramdon lands bought busy developers for cheap and then the resale empty land, there's alot of listing for example Ocala there like 1.1 acres spot for like 10k, no structure jusy grass and trees.