Alico completes sale of conservation land to Florida for $28.5 million

Fort Myers-based Alico Inc. has sold another sizeable chunk of its farmland to the state for preservation.

On Friday, the company — one of America's largest citrus producers — announced that the state, through its Florida Forever program, purchased 10,702 acres of its Alico Ranch land in Hendry County for $28.5 million.

The land sits on the west side of Alico's ranch. It's the company's second such sale of conservation land to the state in what's known as the Devil's Garden area, a prime area for Florida panthers.

Combined, the two purchases have added more than 16,000 acres to the state's Devil's Garden conservation project.

Well south of the Caloosahatchee River, Devil's Garden is north of Big Cypress National Preserve and east of the Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest. The name Devil's Garden stems from the Seminole Wars of the 1800s.

More:Environmental groups praise Gov. DeSantis, Cabinet for voting to buy panther habitat

In a news release, John Kiernan, Alico's president and CEO, said the land sales to Florida fit hand-in-glove with the publicly traded agribusiness company's goal of achieving a greater return for its investors.

"In connection with addressing the proceeds from this latest sale, we are evaluating several options including strategic acquisitions, increasing our common share dividend, and/or selected land acquisitions, where we potentially can take advantage of a like-kind exchange structure, which would allow us to defer a portion of the taxes related to the gain from this land sale to the state," he said.

Controversial water storage project plan no longer pursued 

With the latest land sale to the state, Kiernan said the company will no longer pursue a controversial water storage project. 

“Because the acres involved in the purchase would have been critical to our planned Alico dispersed water storage project, known as Alico Northern Everglades Payment for Environmental Services, we have decided to no longer pursue permit approval activities for that particular project," he said. "However, Alico remains dedicated to preserving Florida's crucial water resources and intends to explore other ways to continue to partner with the state of Florida.”

More:Cabinet approves land conservation deals

Alico had been working to obtain final permit approvals for the water storage project for some time.

The project would have created a more than 35,000-acre water farm, which was expected to cost taxpayers — and net the company — $124 million over 11 years.

The farm was designed to stop water in the Caloosahatchee River from polluting the estuary near Fort Myers and to combat toxic algae blooms. It would have been the largest project of its kind in the state, with the ability to retain 30 billion gallons of water a year.

In 2019, the state purchased 5,534 acres from Alico for more than $14.7 million.

The second purchase from Alico is part of the $79 million Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Cabinet agreed to spend on seven Florida Forever projects this fiscal year. The approvals came in May amid growing concerns about budget shortfalls because of the economic hit the state has taken from the coronavirus pandemic.

The land deals included protecting thousands of acres in Franklin and Wakulla counties with frontage on the Gulf of Mexico.

Environmentalists react to land sale

At the time of their approval, Audubon Florida said in a statement: “From tourism to real estate, agriculture to defense, our state’s economy hinges on healthy wetlands, protected open space, and clean water. All seven of these proposals are remarkable acquisitions for the communities and the economies they support.”

According to the Florida Forever website, the state has purchased more than 818,000 acres of land with more than $3 billion through the program since its inception in July 2001.

Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association, described the latest purchase of land from Alico as "a very good thing." 

"We know that if land is not protected it can disappear," he said.

He emphasized the importance of the Devil's Garden area to wildlife and the critical need to conserve as much land as possible to not only protect panthers, but the many other creatures that share their habitat.

"Florida is like the Amazon of North America," he said. "There are not that many places that have the kind of biodiversity that we have here in Florida."

While Schwartz applauds Alico's sale of environmentally sensitive land to the state, he said it's also one of the major landowners pushing for more development in rural Collier County, which threatens to gobble up other critical habitats for wildlife.

"It's a problem," he said. "If we can't protect these lands and developers are always going to come up with some kind of project over time, then the panther is going to go extinct. That is it. They can only handle so much."