Hillsborough-based Big Cat Rescue, which rose to fame in 2020 thanks to the Netflix documentary series “Tiger King,” sold part of its land to a Florida developer last month for $19.5 million, according to a bill of sale.
Howard Baskin, who ran the rescue effort with his wife Carole for 20 years, said in a phone call Wednesday that they have sold about 55 acres, which developers will use to build about 200 townhomes.
He said he also expects to close a deal in the coming week with another developer who wants to build about 280 apartments on the remaining 11 acres on the north side of the property.
Big Cat Rescue announced in March 2023 its plans to send the animals in its care to a facility in Arkansas and sell its land in the Citrus Park area of Hillsborough County.
The Baskins said at the time that their decision to sell their property was a victory for big cat rights because it signals a reduced need for animal shelters.
“When you drive through and past enclosures that used to have a tiger that would come to you when you passed by and it’s empty, there’s a certain nostalgia about it,” Baskin said Wednesday. “But the overarching emotion is: we are very happy with what happened.”
Baskin said, “It’s an absolute win-win situation” for captive cats, who will have more space in their new shelter. He said Big Cat Rescue has always dedicated a portion of its revenue to funding projects that help prevent the extinction of big cats, and that funding will be increased “very significantly” with proceeds from these sales.
Jeannette Jason, of commercial real estate firm Northmarq’s Tampa office, confirmed the Dec. 23 deal with the Tampa Bay Times.
Jason and her team brokered the deal between Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue, and an entity affiliated with Boos Development Group – a private real estate and development company headquartered in Clearwater.
Baskins’ facility once housed 200 cats. In 2023 there were only 41.
The Baskins worked to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act of 2022, a federal law that banned private ownership of big cats and the petting of cubs — the nation’s leading driver of big cat breeding and overpopulation.
“For thirty-one years, Big Cat Rescue’s mission has been formulated as threefold: to give the best lives we could to the cats in our care, to stop the abuse, and to prevent the extinction of big cats in the wild,” Howard Baskin wrote in 2023 an online statement. “Throughout those same thirty years, we always said our goal was to ‘put ourselves out of business,’ meaning there would be no big cats to save and no need for rescue. the sanctuary that exists.”
Big Cat Rescue’s animals have since been moved to the 450-acre Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, just outside Fayetteville, Arkansas. Baskin said the facility is large enough for the animals to have about 20,000 square feet of free range, compared to the three to 4,000 square feet the Baskins could provide on their property.
“That was great to see,” he said. “We visited them and saw them jumping around in this big open space.”