[allen534]

I am trying to find out what happened to a piece of property owned by my mother (Margaret Louise Morgan Allen) who just passed away March 3, 2007. I have a document from General Development Corporation. The words "Port Charlotte Subdivision" are crossed out and replaced with "Port St. Lucie Subdivision". The lot # is 14, Block 217, Section 16. The form is dated 3/18/1959 and is signed by Doyle S. McCarty.

Would anyone have any idea how to pursue this lead? My mother did not leave sufficient information for me to thoroughly resolve this.

In advance, thank you.

[ellie]

You should be able to call the county tax assessor's office and find out about it. If they don't have the information, they will tell you who does.

Much of that kind of info is also online.

[Jon F Moss]

Strange:

port charlotte is on the west coast, and port st lucie is on the east coast.

[Arrgh]

Here is the link to the Port Charlotte tax assessor
http://www.ccappraiser.com/
and here is the link to the Sarasota County tax collector
http://www.sarasotataxcollector.com/
Alot of the GDC development occurred right on the Sarasota/Port Charlotte county line. Good Luck

[eada5252]

Originally Posted by allen534

I am trying to find out what happened to a piece of property owned by my mother (Margaret Louise Morgan Allen) who just passed away March 3, 2007. I have a document from General Development Corporation. The words "Port Charlotte Subdivision" are crossed out and replaced with "Port St. Lucie Subdivision". The lot # is 14, Block 217, Section 16. The form is dated 3/18/1959 and is signed by Doyle S. McCarty.

Would anyone have any idea how to pursue this lead? My mother did not leave sufficient information for me to thoroughly resolve this.

In advance, thank you.
A

Hi Mr Allen, I too have unearthed a document for " Port Charlotte Subdivision" from files of my deceased parents, dated 1958 with just a lot and block number ( it appears to be a contract for purchase of a parcel). Where you ever able to track your information down and would you mind passing along how you traced it ? Thank you, Lisa Adamson

[cricket416]

Charlotte County has an excellent online interactive map, through which you can access all publicly available info on platted land, and even view copies of the deeds online. [url=http://www.ccgis.com/]Charlotte County GIS Department[/url] When you find the lot info online, click on the Account Number to find out the current status of that lot.

[ilovesl]

Does anybody was able to track any piece of land sell by General Development Corporation in Florida in the 1980-1990. Does anybody track any inf. on those pieces of land. If we still own them or just loose them.

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by ilovesl

Does anybody was able to track any piece of land sell by General Development Corporation in Florida in the 1980-1990. Does anybody track any inf. on those pieces of land. If we still own them or just loose them.

Tax records on the property would be the way to find it. You can track by the person's name who owned the property in most counties on line.

Check papers in your relatives file at home and bank etc for the proof they have paid taxes on the property since the year they bought it. If they weren't paying property taxes every year, it was probably sold for the back taxes.

[Restrain]

Charlotte co deed records are available on-line from about 1977 to now. I would start by looking in the tax records in both counties under the mother's name. If nothing shows up, check the deed records under her name as the Seller.

[newred5]

The General Developement Corp was a huge landowner in Port St Lucie if my memory serves correctly ..back in the day the marketed it to retirees as " own a piece of the dream " and I believe you could buy a small lot for 10 down and 10 a month or something like that
They also owned and developed lots of Cities including Port Charlottee

Port LaBelle, Florida
Port Charlotte, Florida
North Port, Florida
Port St. John, Florida
Port Malabar, now a subdivision in Palm Bay, Florida
Port St. Lucie, Florida
Sebastian Highlands, Florida
Deltona, Florida
Key Biscayne, Florida
As each community began to be developed the developer built the roads, sewer and water plants, golf courses, marinas, other basic amenities and even operated landfills. These new communities had the feel of "company towns." When North Port was incorporated GDC employees even made up the first City Council.

In the 1960s GDC's board of directors hired Charles H. Kellstadt, retired Chairman of Sears as President and Chairman. This was just after the GDC board voted to split with the founding Mackle Brothers. The Mackles went on to develop Marco Island and other prominent communities.

Kelstadt, it was said, implemented a money back guarantee on homes and lots, similar to what Sears offered. This was a powerful sales tool, and combined with the ability to swap remote lots, or undeveloped lots, for lots in the developed areas, allowed GDC to achieve tremendous sales success, selling several thousand lots each month and several hundred homes. The lot swap program also allowed the company to manage construction schedules and defer construction of new lots. Customers who owned a lot in an as yet undeveloped section, could swap for a lot in a developed area.

By the 1970s the company boasted 5,000 employees and a global sales force.

In 1974, GDC was a publicly traded company. It was purchased and taken private by City Investing, George T. Scharffenberger, Chairman.

Then, in the mid 1980s City Investing took the company public again.

In the late 1980s GDC's management team was accused of fraudulent home sales: this led to criminal indictments of the company leadership, and bankruptcy of GDC in 1991. Functional assets held by GDC in various cities were turned over to their respective governments thereafter.

Subsequent to the indictments and convictions of senior management, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals exonerated the men, reversing their convictions and directing that all charges against them be dismissed (see US v. Brown, 79 F.3rd 1550 (1996), for a complete discussion of the case and a general exoneration of General Development Corporation.

Port Charlotte/North Port Over several decades many general managers came and went, but locals would say, "Woody Hogan sold it, and John Stanton built it."