{"id":71277,"date":"2025-12-04T17:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T17:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/71277\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T17:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T17:12:09","slug":"rattlesnake-key-sale-for-18m-a-good-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/71277\/","title":{"rendered":"Rattlesnake Key sale for $18M a \u2018good deal\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\t\t       <a href=\"\" class=\"thickbox\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"thumb image\" class=\"wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Rattlesnake-sells-121025-ra.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rattlesnake Key, shown highlighted in blue, was sold Oct. 30 in a private $18 million transaction. Islander Image: Courtesy Manatee County Tax Collector<\/p>\n<p>A long-running effort to protect one of Tampa Bay\u2019s most ecologically sensitive islands reached a new turning point with the sale of Rattlesnake Key.<\/p>\n<p>The 724-acre tract of mangrove islands and submerged lands in Tampa Bay is south of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Manatee County.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly the entire tract sits within Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, which the Florida Department of Environmental Protection manages.<\/p>\n<p>Rattlesnake Key Preservation Co., the new owner, said in a Dec. 3 statement that the purchase would help \u201cpreserve the natural character of this special property for local residents, sportsmen, and outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Efforts by Manatee County and the state to acquire 1,000 acres, including Rattlesnake Key, for $23 million for a preserve or park collapsed in 2023, and the owners listed the property in 2024 as part of a $75 million package.<\/p>\n<p>Rattlesnake Key remains one of the most intact natural landscapes at the mouth of Tampa Bay, supporting expansive mangrove forests, fish nursery habitat, bird rookeries and shallow-water wetlands.<\/p>\n<p>For more on this story, read the Dec. 10 issue of The Islander.<\/p>\n<p>More from The Islander:\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rattlesnake Key, shown highlighted in blue, was sold Oct. 30 in a private $18 million transaction. Islander Image:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-71277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}