http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-03-04/business/os-kassab-heller-citrus-03052010-20100304_1_heller-bros-acres-of-citrus-grove-emotional-support
Sign of the times? Fruit more profitable than grove land
March 04, 2010|By Beth Kassab, Business Columnist
During the recent boom decades, Central Florida's citrus businesses turned into real estate firms by default.
Groves were far more valuable when harvested for their development potential than fruit.
Perhaps, then, it's a sign of just how far real estate has fallen that one of Orange County's most prominent and oldest citrus families is again buying trees rather than selling them.
Heller Bros. Packing Corp. of Winter Garden closed this week on 2,342 acres of citrus grove in Ft. Pierce for the bargain price of $7.7 million, or about $3,300 per acre.
"We haven't seen prices like this for centrally located, top-quality land for 25 years," said Heller Bros. Partner Harry Falk of the purchase that increased the company's citrus land by about 50 percent and put its holdings about on par with what it had at its height. "It puts us squarely back into the business that it all sprang from."
He said the company has been "net sellers of land" for the last 20 or so years while taking advantage of the state's then-vigorous growth.
"You were not really a good shepherd of real estate assets if you continued to grow citrus," Falk said.
The sale also represents a connection to another well-known local family. Heller Bros. bought the Ft. Pierce grove from holdings that belonged to the late Kenneth Kirchman, the local financial software pioneer who founded the Kirchman Corp. that was later sold to Metavante Banking Solutions-Bankway.
Between recent hurricanes, citrus canker and citrus greening, the industry has taken a beating, but new technological advances to combat tree diseases are what "give us the optimism to go forward where other people see difficulty," Falk said.
The purchase by no means signals a climb back to the top of the industry by Central Florida that has long been ceded to South Florida but it does mean the Orange County institution stays in the game for future generations.
Falk, 46, along with partner Harvey Heller and other members of the family are now preparing the business for the fifth generation.
"That was what we learned from the previous generations, whether it was my grandfather or my uncles, was the ability to enjoy it in the present with only one kind of promise: do everything you can to perpetuate it," he said.
One day, it's likely this land too three miles of the new grove front the Florida Turnpike will become more valuable under pavement than for the sweet Hamlins and Valencias plucked from tree branches.
