Henrico County has halted plans to buy land from a prominent developer after an appraisal showed the property is worth $8.7 million less than officials proposed to spend.
Henrico planned to pay $26.7 million to three companies for about 205 acres on Kain Road. Local developer Robert Atack is a principal in one of the companies, Clarendon Associates LLC.
The proposed price is well above the land's recent appraised value of $18 million and more than twice the $12.7 million that the current owners paid for it in 2005 and 2006.
The appraisal was done at the urging of Tuckahoe Supervisor Patricia S. O'Bannon, who has questioned the proposed sale for months.
The deal has been put on hold. But if it goes through, it would be at least the fourth time since 1999 that Henrico bought land from a developer for nearly double what the developer had paid, sometimes just months earlier, according to a Times-Dispatch review of landsale records.
"There seems to be a pattern," said O'Bannon, who also has been checking records on prior deals.
Atack, president of Atack Properties of Glen Allen and the person who initiated talks on the Kain Road site, was involved in two earlier deals. He said the county and his company pursue land in different ways.
"The county is not in the business of speculating on real estate. We are. We own hundreds of pieces of real estate. That's what we do," Atack said.
In light of the questions, County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett agreed Thursday to appoint an independent commission to review Henrico's land-purchase practices. O'Bannon had called for the panel, citing an apparent pattern where developers buy properties that Henrico is pursuing, then sell them to the county for a large profit.
"I cannot ignore what's in front of me," O'Bannon said Friday. "To me, it's very clear that this was the road to take."
