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Cypress Gardens Land Deal Bogs Down

WINTER HAVEN, FL-The Trust For Public Land, which has contracted to buy 142 acres of the 159-acre water sports attraction for $22 million by Feb. 24, has rejected one low re-purchase bid and is reviewing another it has received from a private developer for the prime property.

By Alex Finkelstein | Updated on November 25, 2003

WINTER HAVEN, FL-The shuttered, 68-year-old, 159-acre Cypress Gardens water sports attraction still isn’t seeing any real daylight as the Washington, DC-based Trust For Public Land continues to review bids received for the Polk County property, 60 miles south of Downtown Orlando.

The clock is running for the trust as it watches a Feb. 24 deadline to close on a $22-million purchase contract it has with majority park owners Larry Maxwell and William Reynolds. The trust is only buying 142 acres of the property to keep it from being sold to commercial developers, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

As soon as the trust closes on the contract, it plans to re-sell the asset to a private developer who must promise to operate Cypress Gardens as a non-profit venture. To ensure that no commercial development will be started on the land, the trust also plans to sell the development rights on the entire property to the state for an undetermined amount.

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