Paradise Springs

[Richard Atyeo]

From the Ocala star Banner.
Now, one of the more attractive pieces of property in the gap - to both environmentalists and commercial water bottling companies - is up for sale. The question is whether there is the money, interest and time to purchase the property and add it to the Greenway, the 110-mile stretch of woods and recreational trails from the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Johns River, which decades ago was planned as a barge canal.

Not far southeast of the intersection of U.S. 441 and Southeast 80th Street, a bumpy car ride over wooded Greenway property and across railroad tracks gets you to Paradise Springs, 4040 S.E. 84th Lane Road.

Amid the live oak trees on this almost 10-acre property, the ground drops some 20 feet to a wooden staircase leading into pool of crystal clear water. Under the surface water and a limestone shelf, an underwater cavern system fed by the Floridan aquifer stretches down for more than 160 feet. Paradise Springs' popularity as a scuba diving spot was evident last week, when Quebec residents Alain Thinel and Jennifer Dufour wrapped up their vacation hitting diving spots across Florida with a visit here.

[WEPIV]

I had not heard about this being for sale. The couple that own it have been there for years and they are friendly people. I like to go to Paradise at times with some of my advaned open water or cavern buddies as I think it is a better (certainly deeper) dive than other area spots. I hope whoever buys it keeps the diving going. What's their asking price?

[Mike Edmonston]

What's their asking price?

3.2mil to bottling company or 2.2mil to a cave agency.

[PerroneFord]

What cave agency do they think could come up with $2.2M? Especially for a site with no going cave?

[Manretto79]

I don't know about a cave agency but if I refinance my home about 22 times I could pull in the money. Oh yeah but again the cave does not go any where.
On a serious side. I went there as an open water diver years ago and found the place to be a great experience. What I don’t understand is that from what I remember there is like no flow at all in there. Why would a bottle company pay 3.3mil for such a low flow cave?

[Mike]

This is truly disconcerting.
I don't dive paradise that often, actually it's been several years, but I still would like to know it's there.
I definitely don't have that kind of cash to keep it open, but wish somebody did.
If I could just hit the lottery, how many caves could I buy?
Oh, well back to reality & one more place I loved to go... gone.

Mike

[PerroneFord]

Isn't the guy who owns Paradise, the brother of the guy who owns Blue Grotto? Where there was similar "talk" of a water bottling company coming in, and trying to sell the property for some astronomical price?

As was mentioned, what bottling company is going to want to bottle in a system with nearly no flow?

[Tegg]

I find it amusing that they have a $2.2Mil price for "cave agency".... It is well known that there is not a cave agency that could produce that kind of money for a sinkhole. They are doing that because their ultimate goal is to sell to a water bottling company, just like Blue Grotto.

10 years ago they bought that sinkhole for $185K. I guess the price of buying water has outpaced even oil rich land... It's sad that people have bowed to greed over conservation of the future of drinkable water....

[Reddiver]

There is a cave in the upper cavern area. I think it has about 4000 feet of line in it.

[Mike Edmonston]

Just an observation,

Does a bottling plant need a karst window to access the water supply? Can they not just stick a pipe down until they hit the spring or acquifer? I'm not a geologist, I don't play one on TV, and I don't stay at a Holiday Inn Express, but is seems to me that the cave systems are under most of Florida right?