BRADENTON, Fla. - Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his three-member cabinet are today expected to approve adding the famed central-Florida Cypress Gardens tourist attraction to the list of properties to be preserved through the Florida Forever environmental land-bond program.
Last week, aides to cabinet members Attorney General Charlie Crist, chief financial officer Tom Gallagher, and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson heard dozens of Cypress Gardens supporters urge that the 67-year-old central Florida attraction be added to the high-priority purchase list.
Cabinet aides take public input and make recommendations to their bosses prior to cabinet meetings.
The 233-acre park, known for its lush tropical gardens and world-famous water ski shows, closed in April. Owners said they no longer had the attendance to support the park. Then developers interested in building condominiums on the property surfaced.
Bush intervened and ordered state officials to see how Florida could help protect the park. In June, the Department of Environmental Protection's Acquisition and Restoration Council recommended that it be added to the Florida Forever list.
Under that listing, a DEP official said yesterday that the agency is recommending that a conservation easement be purchased, as opposed to buying the entire site. The state has protected other attractions and sites by purchasing such easements.
If the cabinet votes to put Cypress Gardens on the Florida Forever list, state officials would begin negotiating with its owner and buyers interested in the property. The ultimate outcome would result in the park being sold to a new owner who agrees to let the state purchase a conservation easement that would prevent major portions of the attraction from being sold off or used for any other purpose.
Several appraisals of the park have been done, but the results have not yet been made public. The state would use Florida Forever bond proceeds to buy the easement.
In related news today, the cabinet is expected to approve Florida Forever revenue refunding bonds that will be sold soon for the DEP by the state's Division of Bond Finance. The exact date of the sale was not known yesterday.
According to the preliminary official statement, the competitive sale will consist of $154.7 million of refunding bonds and $145.3 million of new revenue bonds for Florida Forever projects. Series 1996A bonds maturing in years 2007 through 2013 will be refunded. Those bonds were sold under the Preservation 2000 program, a predecessor of the current Florida Forever program.
The bonds are expected to be insured. Bond counsel for the deal is Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP.
The DEP has $2.7 billion of outstanding debt for environmental preservation land programs.
Moody's Investors Service has assigned an A1 rating to the upcoming Florida Forever bond sale, while Fitch Ratings assigned an A-plus. A Standard & Poor's rating was not available at press time.
