CORTEZ – After a decade of trying to get Iris LeMasters to sell a vacant half acre in the interior of the FISH Preserve, the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage has reached an agreement to buy the property for $185,000.

With the purchase, the not-for-profit organization will own nearly 100 acres of contiguous property on a mangrove-fringed portion of Sarasota Bay, serving as a buffer between the historic fishing village of Cortez and development to the east.

The property, at 4435 114th St. W., was not on the market, but FISH board member Karen Bell, of A.P. Bell Fish Co. in Cortez, negotiated the deal, offering half the price in cash and half financed, FISH board member Linda Molto said.

The price is a sharp drop from the $1.2 million asking price 11 years ago. To the disdain of FISH members, the 2005 advertisement invited buyers to "Build your Florida dream home on this one-of-a-kind half-acre bayfront lot completely surrounded by preserve."

FISH unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate a purchase in 2007 when LeMasters dropped the price to $249,000. In 2009, the organization offered to trade lots on the perimeter of the preserve for LeMasters' land, to no avail.

The Manatee County Property Appraiser's Office website lists the current appraised value of the land at $26,400.

LeMasters, of Grand Rapids, Mich., had planned to build a house on the lot she bought for $3,000 in 1997, but was deterred by difficulty in obtaining approval from Manatee County in 2008 to clear a platted county road right of way that she needed to access her lot from Cortez Road.

FISH business

Like the rest of the property FISH has acquired in the FISH Preserve, the purchase price comes from proceeds from the annual two-day Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival, which charges a recently-increased $3 for adult admission.

Proceeds also have funded the clearing of non-native vegetation on the preserve, native plant installation, trash removal and the construction of bridges, fences and pathways.

In 2001, FISH bought the majority of the preserve from Denise Schewe for $250,000, according to FISH documents.

The organization continued to purchase parcels owned by other individuals until the LeMasters property was the only parcel that remained in private ownership inside the preserve boundaries. Two other parcels bordering the preserve on Cortez Road remain in private hands, one owned by former Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash.