At least 200 individual land owners now know Orange County needs to buy a total 750 acres of their wetlands before it can break ground on a $750 million, one million-sf expansion of the Orange County Convention Center.

The South Florida Water Management District is ordering the county to spend about $7.75 million to buy the land so that neighboring endangered species such as the osprey and gopher tortoises will continue to have a survival home. That is state law.

The county originally had planned to spend $2.5 million or $8,333 per acre (19 cents per sf) to buy 300 acres just north of the Osceola County line. The water district ordered the county to invest another $5.25 million for an additional 450 acres. That equates to $11,666 per acre or 27 cents per sf.