There is hardly a house in existence in Flagler Estates, and certainly not on the Flagler County side. This includes 2,771 acres of subdivided land that was sold more than 40 years ago - back in 1970 - primarily in the form of lots of about one acre apiece.
It is now over four decades later and nothing at all has been built, with the lots in Flagler County still likely to stay vacant until well into the foreseeable future. A number of other stalled developments have also occurred all over the state, including in Volusia County. These are dozens of these ‘paper subdivisions’, which were marketed as investments all over Florida during the 1960s and the 1970s. Purchasers often bought this land sight unseen, and are now often unable to find out precisely where the land is located, let alone build anything on it.
Jeff Hartdorn and Lynne Bohannon, who live in New Smyrna Beach, are the owners of at least 28 lots in Flagler Estates. Some of these are owned personally and some are owned corporately through two landowner’s associations, with their lots varying in size from under one acre up to 2.25 acres. Until five years ago, Hartdorn was fighting to allow buildings to be built on the lots, which are situated in an unincorporated area.
“It’s simplistic to dismiss the purchasers of swampland as stupid,” Hartdorn fumes. “There was an incredibly well choreographed industry to prevent victims from obtaining accurate information.”
Bohannon says that much of the land was sold via contract for deed, which means that those who sold the property owned it until payment was made in full. “People never saw the tax bills or the appraised value of the property,” she notes.
