Seminole Tax Collector Joel Greenberg backs out of controversial deal to sell off branch offices

Jan. 06--Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg has pulled the plug on a controversial land deal that county commissioners criticized as a risky investment involving taxpayers' money and county-owned properties.

"After taking everything into consideration, we decided not to move forward," he said Friday. "We tried to be innovative, and we'll continue to look for innovative ideas."

Greenberg's plan involved selling off four branch offices for $13.2 million to Boyd State Winter Springs LLC, a subsidiary of a Chicago real-estate investment firm, and using the money to buy four or five shopping centers in distressed areas. The closing date for the sale of the properties was scheduled for Jan. 18.

Acting as a landlord, the Tax Collector's Office would then rent out 80 to 90 percent of the space to commercial tenants and use the remaining space for drivers-license operations for residents in Orange and Seminole counties, under Greenberg's plan. Revenue from tenants would be used to pay for tax collector operations and cover the rent on the four branch offices, which would be leased back from the purchaser, over 13 years.

But the state Department of Revenue -- which oversees Greenberg's budget -- dealt a blow to the arrangement last month by saying it could not approve such a deal.

In a memo to Greenberg and Seminole County Attorney Bryant Applegate, Stephen Keller, an executive senior attorney for the Department of Revenue, said such a plan would effectively make the Tax Collector's Office a commercial landlord. The office also would be saddled with the maintenance of the properties, undesirable tenants, vacancies and rent instability, the state official said.

"These issues and costs are wholly unrelated to the function of the tax collector branch office," Keller wrote.

Applegate then warned attorneys for the Tax Collector's Office that if they moved forward in selling the branch offices, Seminole County would file a lawsuit in an effort to stop the deal.

On Dec. 22, Richard Sierra, an attorney for the Tax Collector's Office, sent an email to Applegate saying Greenberg was pulling out of the deal.

"Without DOR's [Department of Revenue] approval, the sale of the properties cannot proceed forward," Sierra said in his email.

Greenberg -- who was elected in 2016 after ousting longtime tax collector Ray Valdes in the GOP primary -- said regional drivers-license offices in shopping centers would serve the region's growing population and an increasing influx of Puerto Ricans relocating to Central Florida from the hurricane-ravaged island. The new offices would, in effect, alleviate wait times.

Greenberg said his office would be converting equity into cash and using that cash to buy properties.

However, county commissioners blasted the deal, saying he was wading into "uncharted waters" by proposing a plan that no other tax collector in Florida has ever attempted.

"These are assets of the taxpayers," Commissioner Brenda Carey told Greenberg at a Dec. 12 meeting. "I think they elected you to collect taxes, not to play real-estate mogul."

Carey and commissioners Lee Constantine, Bob Dallari and Carlton Henley did not respond Friday to requests for comment about Greenberg's decision. Commission Chairman John Horan said he had no comment.

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