It's a nearly 1300 acre piece of land, once used as the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, but the future of this facility is as closely guarded as the fences that once kept the school secure.
"It's a lot of land, and it's a lot of land that's at the interstate at the road there that there is potential economic development activity," says Jackson County Administrator Ted Lakey.
With the help of the Jackson County Development Council, the City of Marianna, Jackson County and the School Board approached the State of Florida about acquiring the land.
"I think they owe it to us to just offer it up to this community," says Lakey. "I mean that facility has been here for a hundred years. Our community has hosted that facility for that long. I think they ought to work with us with any kind of future," says Lakey.
According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the state owned property is first offered up to other state agencies, but since no one expressed interest, it will be appraised and available for bid.
"We have had some discussions in the past several month, but basically the only thing that we're saying is that we're still very interested in that. And once you get to the point where it would be advantageous for us to come to Tallahassee, then we're prepared to that," says Marianna City Manager Jim Dean.
If it means a high price, however, the City is not sure it can do that.
"Lets just say that DEP said 'ok we're gone through the process and the evaluation is 10 million dollars', well ya know the City of Marianna is definitely not interested in buying a 10 million dollar piece of property," says Dean.
State records indicate the property is worth nearly 10-million dollars. There's no timeline on when the appraisal will be done and the bids will begin.
According to Jim Dean, the property once belonged to about 50 Jackson County citizens who turned over the land to the State.
The Department of Environmental Protection says 220 acres of the entire property will be appraised and put up for bid. This is because other parts of the land has been leased to other organizations and agencies who have not expressed interest in being released from these leases. Only the Department of Juvenile Justice has asked to be released from its lease.
Two of the leases on the property are contracted to the organization PRIDE and the Department of Education.
Jim Dean says the City of Marianna along with the others are interested in the entire property.
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