ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The iconic former World Golf Hall of Fame building has sat vacant for nearly two years. Now, World Golf Foundation officials worry that could continue until 2046 -- all thanks to a land-use restriction holding up their sale of the properties to St. Johns County for redevelopment.
“The master developer - IT Land - has a declaration which controls the uses of the hall of fame building, the IMAX and PGA Tour Productions,” World Golf Foundation CEO Greg McLaughlin explained Monday. “The land, the 40 acres they control, whatever is out there, they have the authority to say, you know, ultimately what it could become.”
The issue so far: IT Lands is refusing to waive that current land-use restriction, so the World Golf Foundation is suing IT Lands over their authority on the restriction.
Previous coverage: St. Johns County seeking proposals for redevelopment of World Golf Village Hall of Fame
The foundation alleges the dispute stems from ongoing friction between IT Lands and St. Johns County. The fight is over the master developer’s responsibilities for road improvements to the surrounding area.
“What they’re doing is leveraging all of us because they have road improvement obligations as the master developer on International Golf Parkway, and the county apparently is refusing to give them abatement on their financial obligation,” McLaughlin alleged Monday. “So as a result of it, it’s a stalemate between the parties and we become, sadly, just a kind of a pawn in this, you know, disagreement between IT Land and the county.”
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IT Lands did not address those specific allegations, but their legal team did provide the following statement to Action News Jax:
“Regarding the Complaint filed by the World Golf Foundation, Inc., IT Land Associates is open to a resolution that protects its interests as well as the interests of other parties affected by the Foundation’s decision to relocate the World Golf Hall of Fame. The Foundation’s litigation seeks to relieve it of all its obligations to the World Golf Village community and is solely focused on maximizing their return on the sale of real estate that was given to the Foundation in exchange for its commitment to maintain the Hall of Fame at the World Golf Village. The Foundation chose to file the current lawsuit without any serious attempt to coordinate a solution that was acceptable to IT Land, SJ County and the World Golf Village community. And to date, the Foundation has not made any reasonable attempt to resolve the matter in a manner that is considerate of the various stakeholders.
“We look forward to discussing any questions or comments you may have regarding these issues, but we are not interested in doing an interview given the ongoing case.”
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