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Florida. Division of Florida Land Sales and Condominiums.
Title, Dates:
Rocket City development and litigation files, 1958-1975.
Amount:
7.0 cubic ft.
Medium Included:
Organization/Arrangement:
Chronological by activity (development, management change, lawsuit, etc.).
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Biographical/Historical:
Begun in 1963, Rocket City was an ambitious real estate development situated in Orange County; midway between Orlando and Cape Canaveral. It was the first project of the All-State Development Corporation. The developers of Rocket City planned their project in great detail and the end result was to be a city which would have been larger than Orlando. The Rocket City development hoped to capitalize on the tremendous growth that the "Golden Triangle" area between Orlando, and Cape Canaveral was experiencing in the early 1960s. Particularly, Rocket City was geared towards attracting employees working in the burgeoning aerospace and technology industries as well as enticing relevant businesses to establish a direct presence in the city's industrial area.
However, Rocket City never got off the ground. By 1965, the All-State Development Corporation had declared bankruptcy, its leaders were under investigation for fraud, and those who had purchased or were making payments on properties in Rocket City were left unsure of the status of their investments. Following All-State's declaration of bankruptcy, ownership of Rocket City fell to Banker's Life and Casualty Insurance, All-State's primary creditor. Furthermore, Banker's Life inherited the responsibility to fulfill the many promises which All-State had made to its customers, including the continuing improvement and deeding of the properties in question. By 1970, Banker's Life had finished improving only a portion of what was to be Rocket City, renaming it Cape Orlando Estates, and created the Cape Orlando Corporation to manage it. The rest of the development remained tied up in various legal disputes, with some property owners waiting many years for resolution.
Summary:
This series contains the files of the Division of Land Sales and Condominiums and its predecessor agencies, the Division of Florida Land Sales, the Division of Installment Land Sales, the Florida Land Sales Board, the Florida Installment Land Sales Board, and the Florida Real Estate Commission, regarding the proposed Rocket City real estate development.
The files contain records of Florida's involvement with numerous activities relating to the Rocket City development. These include the initial filings of the All-State Development Corporation and the review of their advertising materials, the state's investigations into various complaints brought against All-State, and the more official legal and investigative files into land fraud by the developer. Furthermore, the files contain records surrounding the transition of the ownership of Rocket City into the hands of Banker's Life and its later transformation into Cape Orlando Estates. These are primarily complaint correspondence and resolutions, a few of which developed into separate litigations. In many cases, certain records may appear multiple times in the series as each new activity by the state involving the Rocket City area called for review of such material in a new context.
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Subject Access Fields:
All-State Development Corporation (Miami, Fla.)
Real estate development Florida Real estate business Florida Advertising Florida
Orange County (Fla.)
Added Entries
Florida Division of Florida Land Sales.
Florida Division of Installment Land Sales.
Florida Real Estate Commission.
Florida Installment Land Sales Board.
Florida Land Sales Board.
for detailed listing.