Cabot Citrus Farms, a premiere golf course in North Brooksville and the State of Florida are in land swap negotiations so Cabot can add more holes to their golf course and the state can add more acreage for preservation.
Cabot Citrus Farms has proposed swapping their 800-plus acres of timberland in Levy County for 324 acres of Withlacoochee State Forest adjacent to their current golf facility.
Ben Cowan-Dewar, co-founder and CEO of Cabot told GolfWeek, “We pursued whether there was a chance to come up with a win-win, which would be the state getting greater land of significantly greater acreage and preservation value in return for land on which we could build additional golf to the west of Citrus Farms.”
Cabot Citrus Farms is a new addition to the Cabot portfolio of golf courses, purchased in 2022. Cabot, based in Canada, has completed an 18-hole course and is working on completing the second 18-hole course at Citrus Farms. The facility includes a resort with high-end homes and cabins. The 324 acres would allow even more golfing opportunities.
Environmentalists aren’t happy with this plan and worry that the land swap could start a trend that could be disastrous for Florida’s natural resources. The deal is getting significant attention because there was an unrelated proposal to add golf courses and other amenities to some of the state parks which was recently a hot topic that faced bipartisan opposition before it was cancelled.
The property in question is bordered by the Suncoast Parkway and US-98 to the west and southwest and Cabot Citrus Farms to the east and southeast. The northern neighbor is a 1222-acre parcel in Citrus County, which is also state forest land.
The 324 acre parcel is closely tied with the Sugar Mill Woods development area and the earliest sales record available on the property appraiser’s website shows Punta Gorda Dev Inc, the parent company of Sugarmill Woods, as the property’s grantee in 1980.
A map of the 324-acre property even shows the plats of lots and roads.
The 324-acre property was once contiguous with Sugarmill Woods before the Suncoast Parkway split it off from the main community when it was constructed.
In 2016, the property was purchased by the Department of Transportation for $6 million and nearly a year later, it was deeded to the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund of the State of Florida – the entity that holds title to state-owned lands in Florida.
The next step for the property exchange would be Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC) of the State of Florida. The last meeting was held on September 12, 2024 and this land swap was not on the agenda. The next meeting is scheduled for December 12, 2024.
