Spruce Creek Fly-in Folks in the News
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Dale Earnhardt's name still on title of Fly-In land
By CECIL G. BRUMLEY
The Daytona Beach News-Journal Business Editor
News-Journal graphic
Locator map of Earnhardt property.
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Prime parcel of land at premier community still carries Dale Earnhardt's name on the title for
2-20 RE.
It sits on a prime corner in one of the premier neighborhoods of the area where he registered some of his greatest triumphs.
But unlike a bronze statue in front of Daytona International Speedway, nothing marks the piece of land that still has Dale Earnhardt's name on the title, other than the street sign for Avanti Court/Spruce Creek Boulevard.
The Earnhardt ownership probably wouldn't mean much to the value of the property anyway.
"It's not like you're buying something with Dale Earnhardt on it," said builder Peter Solti, owner of Solti Construction in Ormond Beach.
But then land in the Fly-In doesn't need a famous owner to make it more expensive — it already is, especially a lot on a taxiway like Earnhardt's.
Solti and Realtor Lenny Ohlsson both estimate the Earnhardt lot and others like it would go for about $400,000.
"It's a nice lot," said Ohlsson, president of Spruce Creek Fly-In Realty. "It's on the corner."
"It's a nice, big corner lot across from our biggest lake," said Jewel Blackwell, co-owner of Spruce Creek Premier Homes.
But then it isn't like you could buy it anyway.
"Teresa (Earnhardt) says she wants to keep it," Ohlsson said.
Before he died, the Earnhardts, Dale and his widow, Teresa, had offers for the lot that they bought in 1991 for $140,000. Dale Earnhardt was even ready to take one of the offers, Ohlsson said. "But then he said his wife wouldn't like it if he sold it."
What exactly Teresa Earnhardt wants to do with the property is unclear. Ohlsson, who last spoke to her about it about two months ago, said he doesn't know if she wants to build a house on it or is just holding onto it as an investment.
Teresa Earnhardt couldn't be reached for comment.
But if she does hold onto it, she can count on it going up in value.
Property prices at the Fly-In have appreciated from 20 to 25 percent in just the last two years, Blackwell said. "I just closed on a small golf villa for $193,000. Twelve years ago, you couldn't give them away."
Prices haven't escalated quite as much as properties outside the unique gated community, Ohlsson said. "I think ours are going up a little bit slower."
The Fly-In market is a little specialized, he said. There aren't a lot of people looking for a gated community with an airport, country club and 18-hole golf course.
Still, it is the biggest fly-in community in the world with the most population and the most aircraft.
The Fly-In started in the early 1970s after a group of Atlanta investors bought an abandoned military airfield from the city of Daytona Beach. The residential project now has about 800 homes.
It has been associated with other famous names, such as John Travolta, who later moved to a fly-in community in the Ocala area where he could fly a bigger plane than Spruce Creek would allow.
NASCAR drivers Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick and Mike Skinner all live there, and former driver and Fox network racing announcer Wally Dallenbach has a second home there.
Even more important when considering the value of real estate: There isn't much available to buy.
"We have very little inventory available in Spruce Creek," Blackwell said. "There's only 11 hangar homes with taxiway available (some could be under contract)."
"There isn't any more large tracts of land to develop," Ohlsson said. "There's still some empty lots here and there, but as far as large tracts, they're built out."
Paytas Homes developed the last 90-acre parcel there and that section has sold out.
But the build out also helps the value of property in the Fly-In in another way.
"Back in the old days it wasn't peaceful, there was so much construction going on," Ohlsson said. "Everything has calmed down now."
But a few more new homes will be built as the Fly-In attracts interest from around the world.
Solti just finished a house on the golf course. "It was for a retired gentleman from Miami, who decided to relocate," he said.