Orlando Weekly’s Erin Sullivan talks about the city of Orlando and the announcement that it would buy back land from the Black Business Investment Fund for its fair-market value of $2 million dollars- more than double what it sold it for to make way for its plan to build a new soccer stadium downtown.

Back in 2005  the city sold the Black Business Investment Fund a piece of property near the corner of Church Street and Parramore Avenue for $814,000.The BBIF, a community lender that specializes in loaning money for projects in under served communities, had grand plans for that piece of land –it said it would be redeveloped into Carver Square, a mixed-use development that would include residential units, retail space and a theater. The idea was part of a plan to revitalize Parramore and honor the area’s African-American community.

Nine years later, that piece of property is still vacant and in 2008, the BBIF borrowed even more money from the city –$878,000 –to get the project started. But nothing happened, and nobody seems to know exactly where that money went.

The city announced recently that it would buy back that land from BBIF for its fair-market value of $2 million –more than double what it sold it for all those years ago –to make way for its plan to build a new soccer stadium downtown.