Collier County commissioners approved an agreement to acquire a 10‑acre parcel from Cypress Cove Land Keepers Inc. for $648,900 (not to exceed $653,570 including closing costs) to fold the lot into the surrounding Gore Preserve.

Jamie Cook, development review director, said the property is surrounded entirely by Conservation Collier land and has been operated as a nature center under a memorandum of understanding for more than four years. The owner, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, had purchased the parcel after Conservation Collier lacked referendum funding at the time of earlier acquisitions. County staff said the parcel contains a residence historically used as an educational facility and that acquisition prevents potential future private residential development in the preserve’s interior.

Commissioners discussed continued operation of the property as a learning center and asked staff to return with recommendations on whether an additional conditional‑use or administrative action would be required to continue that public‑education use after the county closes. The buyer is the county’s Conservation Collier program; the board approved the purchase on a motion and second; the vote was unanimous.

Commissioners and staff said the acquisition removes a “hole in the donut” — a privately owned parcel in the middle of conserved land — and supports longer‑term preservation and public access plans for the Gore Preserve.