The developer of Babcock ranch addresses a business group

The developer of Babcock ranch addresses a business group in Fort Myers and describes the deal in literary terms.

Sydney Kitson could write a book about the story of the sale and development of Babcock Ranch, he told a group of Lee County business people, community leaders and state legislators Wednesday.

He's just not sure anyone would buy it — or when he will be able to write the final chapter.

Chapter 1 – The Negotiation

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness …

"I can't believe how far we've come in the last 11 months, and how much I've learned about negotiating," he told a lunchtime gathering of the Chamber of Southwest Florida at Edison College. "I've learned that when you're negotiating with the state, you're not negotiating with a person. You have a signed agreement, and then you're just beginning.

"I was so naive. We worked out all the details with Lee County and the comprehensive plan with Charlotte. When the state signed off on it, I thought we had it done. But then everybody else in the state wanted to get into the middle of this."

Chapter 2 – The Legislative Session

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents …

"When I first started going to Tallahassee, I tried to get meetings with people and they would say: 'Who are you? How do you spell that again?' Nobody knew who I was or wanted to talk to me. By the end of the session, though, it seemed like everyone up there was calling to meet with me.

"You probably didn't know that (Rep.) Trudi (Williams, R-Fort Myers) was a psychologist. Near the end, as it went down to the final days and then the final hours of the last day, I was getting nervous and kept calling her, and she kept telling me: 'It'll be alright — I think.' She did a phenomenal job carrying this through the Legislature, and also keeping me calm."

Chapter 3 – The Construction

In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain …

"With all the permitting and other things we're working through, it probably will be between two and two-and-a-half years before you start to see anything come out of the ground, which is a shame because thousands of people have asked me how to get on a waiting list to buy a place there. The new town we're going to build will be 17,800 acres, and half of that is greenways with 30 miles of motor-free paths for families to take walks and for people to hike and bike. So between that and the 71,000-plus acres the state and Lee County are buying, over 90 percent of the whole ranch is going to be preserved as it is in perpetuity.

"We'll be selling all types of homes there, from the truly affordable selling for $200,000, $250,000, $300,000, $350,000, right up to a million. Of course, the longer it takes to build, the harder it will be to hold those prices. We still have a long way to go."

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