Dec. 2, 2024, TARPON SPRINGS, FL – After nearly five years, WK Preservation Group (WKPG) has reached a critical point in its quest to save the West Klosterman Preserve, 14 wild acres on W. Klosterman Road, from development.

MAIN POINTS:

• On Nov. 20, the sales agreement was finalized between the land’s owner, Pinellas County Schools, and the buyer, Pinellas County. The sales agreement incorporates a gift agreement between WKPG and Pinellas County that provides the county with $1.5 million toward the property’s $3 million purchase price and sets a due diligence period and a final closing date of April 2025 for the sale.

• This gift agreement has a deadline of Dec. 10, for WKPG to raise the $1.5 million gift amount and have it ready by the closing of the sale.  

• The gift agreement provides that WKPG and its funding partner, Pinellas Community Foundation (PCF), will consolidate all money raised and call in pledges made over the years to preserve the land intact. 

• WKPG and PCF leaders are now contacting supporters who have made financial pledges toward saving the preserve and are already receiving their pledges in time to meet the Dec.10 target.  

“We’ve done what we need to do,” said Kay Carter, founding member and chief operations officer of the WKPG board of directors. “The county will ask for the money when it’s ready to close next year and we’re confident we will have it available.”

Pinellas County School Board Chairperson Laura Hine signed the sales agreement on behalf of the school board on July 16. Barry Burton, Pinellas County administrator, signed it Nov. 20 on behalf of the county. 

“We want all pledges to close out by Dec. 10, as stipulated in our gift agreement with the County,” emphasized Tex Carter, WKPG founding member and president of the WKPG board of directors. “Although the closing date is early next year, WKPG will hold the money and transfer it to the county when it is time for the final closing.”  

For charitable contributions, donors who are looking for tax benefits will have already earned their benefit when they make their contribution to WKPG.   

As long as the process goes smoothly and all of the funding requirements of the gift agreement are met, WK Preservation Group and the people who have supported the WK Preserve campaign can take pride in how they have worked to save the West Klosterman Preserve. 

“Almost five years ago, a group of Pinellas County residents decided that it was important to prevent the rapid disappearance of the small slices of paradise still remaining in Pinellas County,” said Carter. “They have worked over the years to build a partnership with Pinellas County and Pinellas County Schools. Today, this partnership includes the county, the school board and WKPG with almost 2,000 citizens who have donated, working to ensure that one of the slices of paradise is saved, and that future preservation efforts can succeed in the same way as the West Klosterman Preserve.”

After completing the West Klosterman project, WKPG will turn its attention to saving other wild parcels in densely populated Pinellas County from development. 

Background 

The West Klosterman property is a preserve in name only. It sits next to the Mariner’s Point Management Area (MPMA), a 76-acre, county-owned preserve. The two properties will be managed by the county as a larger preserve in perpetuity, effectively doubling upland habitat for rare and endangered species such as gopher tortoises, migrating birds and rare plants. It will increase the area’s natural drainage system and prevent an estimated 600 extra daily car trips on narrow, dead-end Klosterman Road. 

WK Preservation Group was formed as a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization in early 2020 to save the West Klosterman property from developers who expressed interest in purchasing the long-unused property and building up to 70 multifamily living units on it. The Pinellas School District had purchased the property in the 1990s from the Diocese of St. Petersburg. Plans to put a school on the property never materialized.  

WKPG has joined forces with Pinellas Community Foundation in seeking the large donations that are key to completing acquisition of the Preserve. To learn more and support its cause, visit www.wkpreserve.com.