Land Deal Set for Late September

You might remember the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in May approving an agreement with the Illinois River Watershed Partnership to pursue site development on a 31-acre piece of land in Cave Springs. The land includes the six-acre Lake Keith.

Well, as Whispers understands it, the IRWP is set to close on its purchase of that land during the last week of September. Metropolitan National Bank of Little Rock currently owns the land, eyed at one time by Collins Haynes as a potential residential development.

The deal apparently has been in the works for 18 to 24 months. Specific terms of the sale weren’t available as of press time, but IRWP executive director Delia Haak said a fundraising goal of $1.76 million has been met.

That includes $880,000 cash or in-kind services from the AGFC and a challenge grant of about $440,000 from the Walton Family Foundation. The WFF also ponied up grant money for a study that determined the economic and environmental feasibility of the project.

Once the deal closes, the land will become known as the Watershed Sanctuary at Cave Springs, and the AGFC will have a 25-year lease agreement with the IRWP. The AGFC also will have an option to build a regional office on the property. If the AGFC exercises that option within one year, it will receive a 99-year lease for $1 per year.

And This

The IRWP also plans to build an office on the property, which will offer free access to the public.

Proposed amenities for the land include trails, a fishing pier, interpretive stations and a bat observation tower. A cave on the property is home to both a gray bat colony and the endangered Ozark cavefish species.

A host of other facilities and services have been proposed for both educational and recreational purposes.