Previous land owner says Washington County, Va., and Abingdon, Va., could have bought land cheaper f

ABINGDON, Va. – The town of Abingdon could have bought virtually the same piece of land for a recreation complex six months ago for much less, a landowner says. But the town was not interested until a local developer bought it and upped the price, he told the Herald Courier.

The town joined Washington County last week in buying from the development firm Clifton-Stewart a 59.3-acre parcel near Interstate 81’s Exit 22 for $2.37 million – or $40,000 an acre instead of the $27,000 an acre that David Millsap said he and at least one other landowner offered in the spring.

Millsap said a relative, Nora Millsap, and state Delegate Joe Johnson and his son, Judge Sage Johnson, all would have sold directly to the town for lower than what taxpayers will end up paying under last week’s deal.

"As the saying goes, something’s rotten in Denmark – or Abingdon," Millsap said.

Abingdon Town Manager Greg Kelly, Town Council member Cathy Lowe and one of the developers, Jimmy Stewart, denied that any of the landowners made such an offer and disputed Millsap’s claims that he approached them through a third party that he would not name.

"Nobody offered that property to the town," Kelly said, adding that Clifton-Stewart initially offered a portion of the property for $68,000 an acre and dropped the price to $40,000 an acre following negotiations.

Said Stewart, who is partner Mac Clifton’s son-in-law: "I don’t understand how people think there’s something shady. I don’t know when you’re dealing with the county and the town how you do a shady deal. … The accusation that people [Millsap] are making is false."

According to county deed records, Clifton-Stewart’s deal with the town and county made the firm more than $600,000 over what it paid for the land, which the firm bought in chunks in August, October and earlier this month.

"We do that all the time," said Clifton, co-owner of the company. "If you’re around these auctions or know property, you can do that."

Clifton said he could have made more money building houses on the property, as he had intended to do with a subdivision called Noah’s Point, where small lots – far less than an acre – would have sold for $45,000 apiece.

Kenneth Reynolds, chairman of the Washington County Board of Supervisors, said county officials didn’t know when Clifton-Stewart bought the property or for how much. "That wasn’t our responsibility now to do that," Reynolds said.

"… We were just trying to find a site that would work out. Based on the total development cost that we projected, we felt like that was an excellent site," he said.

Town and county officials maintain that other costs of developing the site – such as grading and infrastructure – made the overall project relatively cheap. As part of the sale agreement, Clifton is swapping 5 acres of his own land with 5 acres of the purchased land so the county’s tract will be the proper shape for a ballfield complex.

Scott Wilson, an engineer who volunteered his time to assess the viability of potential sites, said the land swap made all the difference.

"The site that they’ve selected was brought up a while ago, and it was discounted because … the site would have been too narrow," Wilson said. "If you’re putting four baseball fields back to back, you need a certain amount of width to fit that on there, and you couldn’t have done that without the land swap."

Officials said they agreed to wait a year to close on the sale so Clifton-Stewart can avoid losing some of that profit to capital gains taxes.

"I guess the one thing I hope the people would understand is this is not a decision that was made on the spur of the moment," said Abingdon Town Councilman Ed Morgan.

"There were many considerations that went into it. Price was definitely a consideration, location was a consideration, the cost of development was a situation, and it was not something that was made because we were friends of so and so," Morgan said, adding that so and so was developer Jimmy Stewart.

Sage Johnson, another former owner of the property in question and a Washington County judge, said the county had looked at his land a couple of times but that he alone did not have enough property to interest county officials.

"We got what we thought was a more than fair price for our land, and they paid us what we wanted for it," Johnson said, "and if they can turn it around and flip it and make more money than what we did, that’s the nature of business."

County and town officials said they jumped on the opportunity when the land became available as a single tract this fall.

"It’s my understanding they had another party that was involved that wanted to purchase it," said Reynolds.

Town officials said their understanding was that a Richmond development company was looking to spend upwards of $50,000 an acre for the land.

Yet asked about who the other bidder was, Clifton said, "That’s the first I heard of it."

But his partner, Stewart, said late Saturday, "There was another company interested in doing a full-blown retirement community that had talked to us about buying that piece of property off of us."

Tony Rector, the lone county supervisor who voted against the purchase, said the taxpayers paid too much and that the decision was hasty.

"I think you should look into things pretty thorough before you start spending $2.37 million for it," Rector said. "I just think we need to be better stewards of the taxpayers’ money. … I’m for a sports complex, I’m just for a more reasonably priced sports complex."

Ron Coon, a real estate agent with the Mahaffey Agency in Abingdon, said the property is in a prime location for development and might have been worth the price.

"It’s a premium price for the property, no doubt about it, but it’s not unrealistic," Coon said.

Town officials said no soil studies have been done yet to determine how much rock will need to be moved to develop the site – but soil and environmental studies will be done in the near future.

Town and county officials also said they acted on the Exit 22 property based on a Little League mandate communicated to them, although it’s not clear by whom, that the ballfields needed to be within certain boundaries.

That was the reason why town and county officials said they could not pursue another nearby site – for $21,000 an acre at Exit 24 – because it fell outside the boundaries of the Abingdon Little League.

But, according to Little League officials, no such rule exists.

"There is no rule that says you cannot have your field outside your boundaries," said Bill Hill, administrator for the Little League district that includes Washington, Scott and Smyth counties.

Hill said it’s better to have the field centrally located, but that there is no formal rule to that effect.

John Williams, vice president of Glade Spring Little League, said the myth was manufactured to give Abingdon a controlling interest in the sports complex.

"We need a sports complex that is going to benefit anyone who lives in the county," Williams said. "We don’t need a sports complex that’s going to be governed and ruled by the town of Abingdon."

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