Click here to read the story by our media partner Gulfshore Business magazine.
A relatively small piece of land is at the center of a big vote in Collier County.
It’s a real estate deal tied back to a county commissioner, but he told WINK News he won’t abstain from the vote.
In the early 2000s, Bill McDaniel and a partner owned the land and used it for an excavating business. The deep hole they dug is now filled with water and formed a small lake. They took out $20 million in loans to help run the business. A short time later, the Great Recession hit and they defaulted on the loans.
Fast forward to today: McDaniel is a Collier County commissioner. His land and the rights to collect millions of dollars in loan debt were bought for pennies on the dollar.
A Collier County man paid $900,000 for it, but he decided to forgive McDaniel of all that debt and sold the property to an East Coast developer.
