By ROCCO MAGLIO
The Brooksville Housing authority has accepted a bid for the eerily vacant Hillside Estates community which is 13.40 acres zoned multi family. The winning bid was the highest of seven bids. The bid was by Premier Housing Investments, LLC for the amount of $1,700,000.00.
The Premier Housing Investments, LLC lists Chadwick Pettinato as the Manager in SunBiz. Chadwick Pettinato is also officer on a number of other entities in SunBiz.
The Hillside Estates property is located at 800 Continental Dr and is appraised at $2,376,798 according to the property appraiser’s website. Zillow’s zestimate is quite a bit higher at $3,764,162. Although neither of those rough appraisals should be considered an accurate estimate of value.
The sale will also require the approval of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). If HUD approves it, then the sale will actually take place.
The Hillside Estates community was closed in 2012. It has been mostly vacant from that time. The Brooksville Housing Authority director Tommy Brooks had been tasked with getting the property fully vacated. Some homeless people took shelter in the abandoned homes from time to time.
The vacating of the Hillside Estates property came up in the in the April 16, 2019 meeting of the Brooksville Housing Authority Board. HUD ended the funding of director position as of May 31, 2019. In the April 16th meeting the Brooksville Housing Authority Board granted six months severance to the Brooksville Housing Authority director Tommy Brooks. The director’s contract did not contain a provision for HUD ending the position. It only contained provisions for termination by the board and if the board did it for convenience, not for cause the director was to be paid 6 months severance. According to the minutes Cliff Manual stated Tommy’s service was to vacate the property from tenants and he completed that task.
The Hillside Estates property is next to the dilapidated Dryden Place apartments. This 14.7 acre property was sold on April 4, 2019, to EB 200 Dryden Place LLC for $1,420,000. The parent company of the EB 200 Dryden Place LLC is Baird Ventures, LLC of Sarasota.
The sale of these properties will hopefully result in improvement to these abandoned properties. The natural beauty of these locations on the hillside behind Roger’s Christmas House Village could become alluring for potential residents.
