Troubled Homeland land sold at 9% discount

Branch Banking & Trust Co. unloaded the beleaguered site of a Garden Depot tree nursery in Miami-Dade County’s Homestead community at a 9 percent discount.

Costa GD LLC — a company run by Maria Smith, Jose Costa III and Jose Smith – acquired the 117-acre site at 19000 Southwest 192nd Street for $2.8 million from an affiliate of Branch Banking & Trust. The former owner, Garden Depot Corporation, faced a $3.8 million foreclosed mortgage.

The sites were seized from Garden Depot Corporation in 2011. The bank sold 20 of the total 137 acres of land to Gregory Mislow for roughly $583,000 the next year. [South Florida Business Journal] — Mark Maurer