Land auction offers hundreds of acres of Polk County citrus groves

Anyone driving recently on Scenic Highway south of Babson Park might have wondered if the scenery could soon be changing.

Signs along State Road 17 advertise an upcoming auction of 584 combined acres, most of it covered in citrus groves on the rolling hills of the Lake Wales Ridge.

The online auction, scheduled for Oct. 20 through 22, includes 27 parcels available separately or in combination, said Dean Saunders, the broker whose company is handling the auction. Much of the land lies within the boundaries of Frostproof.

"There are various-sized parcels, and so I have found over the years that makes for a good auction," Saunders said. "When it's not been generally available, it now is, and there's smaller tracts, you have something for everybody."

Saunders Auctions, a division of Saunders Real Estate, based in Lakeland, is handling the auction.


The property is owned by the Etter family. Emery Etter, an owner of apple orchards in his native Pennsylvania, purchased the Polk County tracts in 2014, according to property records. Etter died in a vehicle crash in 2024 at age 83, according to an online obituary.

Etter's widow, Vada Etter, inherited ownership of the Florida properties. Saunders said that the family decided to liquidate its Polk County holdings.

"The property presents several possible ownership strategies, including continued citrus production, land banking, agricultural investment and potential future development," a description on the Saunders Auctions website says. "Established wells serving the citrus groves add value to the agricultural operation. Existing fruit will convey with the sale, including Valencia and Hamlin orange varieties."

Most of the land has a Florida Department of Revenue use code for citrus.

'It's just prime real estate'



The auction also includes about 115 acres near Reedy Lake, including five waterfront parcels with lake frontage, the website description says.

"A lot of this property is prime citrus grove property," Saunders said. "It's just prime real estate. It's right there on the top of the hill. It's just great views. It's hard to find property like that that's available for sale."

The smallest parcel up for auction is about 10 acres, Saunders said.

"It's all online, and so the computer will keep up with the combination of offers that produces the highest return," he said. "So you can bid on one parcel. You can bid on all of them. You can bid on the whole thing, or you can bid on a combination of parcels. Again, it'll keep track of the highest combination, the winning combination."


Saunders recalled an auction his company handled last year, in which someone made a bid in the final five minutes before the scheduled completion. That prompted a five-minute extension, and further bids pushed the conclusion of the auction back by more than three hours, he said.

"With the combination of offers, even if you're only bidding on 10 acres, if you up your offer a little bit, and other people in your combination add a little bit, it might be enough to suddenly be in the winning position," Saunders said. "So it's really kind of fun to watch, honestly. But it produces a good, good outcome."

Saunders said that his company has received "a lot of interest" in the properties.

Large swaths of former citrus groves have disappeared in Polk County in recent decades, as citrus greening disease and other factors have hindered the industry. Many former groves have given way to housing projects or other developments.

Could land remain citrus groves?



Saunders said he has heard from some potential bidders who might want to continue operating the existing citrus groves.

"If you want to buy five acres and build a house on Lake Reedy, we've got that for you," he said. "If you want an orange grove, we've got that for you. If you want to be a developer and develop some acreage tract subdivisions, we've got that for you as well. If you want to be a citrus grower, you want to do citrus under protective covering, we've got parcels that are large enough to accommodate that. If you want to grow it in a traditional sense and try to get some of the newfangled rootstocks that seem to exhibit some resistance to greening, we've got that."

He added: "If you want to buy 10-acre tracts and be on the top of the world and build a nice house, we've got that."

The tracts along SR 17 lie within the Crooked to Tiger Connection, a swath of 6,303 acres that a Polk County committee has recommended as a target for possible acquisition. The Conservation Land Acquisition Selection Advisory Committee included that area among 11 recommendations made at its Sept. 23 meeting.


Polk County owns property on the west side of Crooked Lake, and two wildlife crossings under U.S. 27 allow movement by animals, said Tabitha Biehl, director of Polk County's Parks and Natural Resources Division. Wildlife can travel on a "land bridge" between Crooked Lake and Little Crooked Lake and continue east toward Tiger Creek Preserve, a 4,980-acre property managed by The Nature Conservancy.

The land is not currently included in the Florida Wildlife Corridor, but it could be added because development around Davenport has rendered that segment not viable for animal movement, Biehl said.

Polk County voters approved a 20-year property tax levy in 2022 to generate funds for acquiring conservation land. But the county would not be able to bid on the properties in the Saunders auction.

The acquisition process requires nominations from land owners or their representatives, and CLASAC then assesses the nominated properties before making recommendations of possible acquisition. That can involve outright purchases or the buying of conservation easements.

Potential bidders must register in advance and meet identification and pre-qualification requirements. Anyone interested may email Saunders at [email protected] or call 863-648-1528 and ask for Nick Dabbelt or Spencer Smith.

Gary White can be reached at [email protected] or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Land auction offers hundreds of acres of Polk County citrus groves