Celebration's purchase also places some standing properties under its ownership, such as the Homestead dairy Barn, which the company will renovate and reopen as a community center. It has yet to be determined exactly how Celebration will use the remaining 3,300 acres, but the company has provisional plans for developing a residential and mixed-use village on the land.

Celebration officials will spend the remainder of the year surveying the property, and plans to have a list of specific zoning requests prepared for the Bath County Board of Supervisors by the fourth quarter. "Our plans, which will span the next 10 to 12 years, emphasize architectural styles and development patterns indigenous to the area and in keeping with an emphasis on environmental sensitivity," Celebration managing principle Charles Adams says. "Our goal is to facilitate economic development in a responsible manner that will preserve the natural beauty of the region."

For the Nature conservancy, the 9,000-acre purchase is the organization's single largest acquisition. The property--which is home to migratory songbirds, raptors, black bears, and bobcats--will be permanently utilized for land conservation practices and research.