Waterfront property in St. Marys is set to come up for sale soon, as a high-profile deal between a county agency and mega-developer falls apart.
In a unanimous vote Thursday, the Camden County Joint Development Authority board decided to start advertising foreclosure April 3 against Cumberland Inlet LLC, regarding the site that developer Jim Jacoby promised to turn into an ecotourism base camp with a marina, a RV park, a hotel, home rentals and commercial space.
Four years ago, the county development authority extended a sort of seed loan of almost $11 million to the developer to help jumpstart work on what was called Cumberland Inlet.
In 2022, VIPs including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp attended a groundbreaking. But the ceremonial shovels haven’t been replaced by an army of bulldozers and diggers. Instead, the site is rather quiet.
Jacoby’s development company did make timely loan repayments to the development authority in 2023 and early 2024. But after one late payment in September last year, followed by nonpayment of about $182,000 due in February this year, the public board is pulling the plug.
Jim Jacoby did not immediately return a call for comment on Friday.
The next step after a foreclosure notice is a property sale on the courthouse steps. There, a developer could buy the land or the county development authority could re-acquire it.
Atlanta-based Jacoby Development has run projects on this scale elsewhere, such as building Porsche’s North American headquarters and test track on the site of an old Ford factory near Atlanta’s airport.
James Coughlin, executive director of the county JDA, said he’s already getting calls from other interested developers.
“In each case, what I’ve had to say is, right now that property is owned by Jacoby Development and I’m happy to give you the contact information for our attorneys, and we can get in touch with you at some point in the future if you’re still interested,” Coughlin said. “And all of these groups out of Florida and Atlanta and other places have said, ‘Please keep us in the loop. We are interested in that property.’ ”