Florida’s Bluffs of Saint Teresa Sells for $43 Million
Florida’s Bluffs of Saint Teresa Sells for $43 Million
By Cary Estes
The State of Florida, in conjunction with a group of conservation partners, paid $43 million to acquire the Bluffs of Saint Teresa from Ochlockonee Timberlands. The strategic 17,080-acre parcel fronts the Gulf of Mexico in Franklin and Wakulla Counties. The tract consists of more than 6,000 acres of wetland and almost 11,000 acres of upland terrain.
Ochlockonee Timberlands
The seller, Ochlockonee Timberlands, was represented by Dean Saunders, founder and managing director of SVN | Saunders Ralston Dantzler Real Estate. A subsidiary of Utah-based AgReserves, Ochlockonee Timberlands paid The St. Joe Company $562 million in 2014 for almost 600 square miles of nonstrategic timberland and rural land in Northwest Florida. The transaction was recognized as the 2014 Land Report Timberland Deal of the Year.
After that transaction closed, Ochlockonee Timberlands began the process of identifying nonessential tracts. Saunders had been one of the brokers involved in the $562 million sale and subsequently listed the Bluffs for $50 million.
Conservation Partnership
All told, Saunders spent five years building the partnership alliance that acquired the property. Partners included The Nature Conservancy, which contributed $2.25 million toward the purchase price, and the US Department of Defense, which kicked in $2.19 million. The acquisition boosts the total of protected landscape in Florida’s Big Bend area to more than one million acres.
The Bluffs of Saint Teresa share a continuous border with Bald Point State Park and remain one of the most expansive tracts of undeveloped land on the Gulf Coast. In addition to 17 miles of waterfront, the landholding includes interior lakes, wetlands, floodplain swamp, salt marshes, tidal creeks, and dunes. The habitat is also home to rare plants and endangered species.