Lee County makes $42.4M deal to buy Edison Farms

Lee County and the company that owns Edison Farms, a 3,922-acre parcel in southeast Lee County, have reached a deal that means the property will be preserved as part of the county's Conservation 20/20 program.

The sale price, $42.4 million, is roughly equivalent to what the county put on the table last June. The deal would mean the county would pay the closing costs in the transaction.

Since then, the county and local real estate broker Randy Thibaut of Land Solutions, Inc. have been in negotiation over the purchase. Thibaut's first offer to sell was for $49 million; Lee commissioners countered with a $42 million offer.

Conservationists prized the site for it's role in water management as well as for its importance as an ecological habitat.