UPDATED, Sept. 12, 12:26 p.m.: Florida Power and Light bought 109 acres near Homestead for $9.8 million where its affiliate natural gas company plans to build a nitrogen gas plant.
FPL, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, bought the two parcels in south Miami-Dade County for nearly $90,000 per acre from Marie Charbonneaux Trust, records show. The property sits just off the Florida Turnpike at Southwest 261st Street and is currently farmland.
The company’s affiliate, Florida City Gas, submitted plans to use the property to store liquified nitrogen gas in three storage tanks of about 90,000 gallons each, according to a petition with the county. The company said there is a chance the facility will conduct liquefaction in the future, which is the process of turning natural gas into a liquid.
Florida City Gas is a natural gas distribution company serving about 110,000 residential and commercial natural gas customers in Florida’s Miami-Dade, Brevard, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties.
In a statement, FPL said it is “always planning ahead” to meet the needs of its customers, and that it routinely buys land “that we believe would help us meet those needs.”
FPL is an active acquirer of land in South Florida. In June 2018, the company paid $10 million for a 400-acre site in the western edge of Palm Beach County that it planned to use for a solar farm.
Homebuilders like Lennar and D.R. Horton are increasingly buying land in south Miami-Dade County, as land is more affordable in the city’s urban core. Last month, D.R. Horton paid $11.5 million for 25.4 acres in Florida City.