County finalizes $100 sale of land near UTC for Mote aquarium
Tuesday, July 19, 2022 | Tucked away near Longboat Key for four decades, Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium wins unanimous County Commission approval for conveyance of land for new site at UTC.
By: Andrew Warfield, staff writer
Eight dollars and 50 cents an acre. Along a busy interstate highway. Adjacent to some of the most valuable inland property along the central Gulf Coast.
In this time of rapidly escalating real estate prices, that kind of deal is unheard of but not impossible if you’re planning to build a tourism-generating, $130 million aquarium on 11.76 acres of formerly county-owned land between The Mall at University Town Center and Nathan Benderson Park.
