Nearly 940 acres of Kirkland Ranch in Wesley Chapel will remain open land after the State of Florida purchased the historic cattle property for $30.8 million.

The Kirkland family, which had owned the ranch since 1956, also donated 4.5 acres at the corner of Curley and Kiefer roads to the Pasco County School District for a future school campus. The family stipulated the land be used for educational purposes.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District approved the purchase in August 2025, using funds the Florida Legislature appropriated through the Department of Environmental Protection. The ranch sits east of Curley Road, surrounded by the fast-growing Epperson Ranch and Watergrass developments. Brian Armstrong, the district's executive director, said in a statement that the purchase would help preserve the region's lands and water resources.

The deal traces back to a yearslong charitable estate plan. Family members Jack Kirkland and his sister Elizabeth "Betsy" Kirkland Holloway each transferred their interests in the company that owned the ranch to charitable funds at Community Foundation Tampa Bay. Those gifts gave the foundation a two-thirds stake in the entity, according to a contributed article in Tampa Bay Wealth Management magazine. When the state conservation sale closed in 2025, it generated more than $20 million in charitable assets now held at the foundation.

Holloway died in 2024 at age 103. Her brother Cicero Kirkland began developing the ranch in 1949 with his son Raymond, according to Neighborhood News.

The 4.5-acre school-site donation was announced at the Nov. 4, 2025, Pasco County School Board meeting. Caesar Rinaldi, president of Kirkland Ranch Inc., told the board the family had long planned the gift.

"On behalf of the Kirkland and the Holloway family, we're happy to give this gift to the school board," Rinaldi said at the meeting, according to Laker/Lutz News. "This family has always been big on education."

Former school administrator Ray Gadd, who negotiated the original 100-acre land deal with the family starting in 2019, described meeting Rinaldi repeatedly at a Denny's before locking down the agreement. That earlier deal led to the opening of Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation in 2022 and Kirkland Ranch K-8 in 2024. A classroom wing at the K-8 campus is expected to be completed by summer 2027, according to the district's 2026-2027 tentative budget.

The Pasco County School Board's May 19, 2026, agenda included an Educational Plant Spot Survey item referencing the donated Kirkland family property, a step toward formal planning for the site.

On Dec. 8, 2025, Community Foundation Tampa Bay presented a $1 million grant from the Marvin & Elizabeth Holloway Foundation to the University of Florida's Alpha Gamma Education Foundation, funding scholarships for agriculture students.

The 940-acre conservation parcel is roughly 59% uplands and 41% wetlands. No public access plan has been announced.

Coming up: The Kirkland Ranch K-8 classroom wing is expected to open by summer 2027.