A popular nature preserve in Marin County has nearly doubled in size now that a complicated $42.1 million land deal is complete.
The purchase, announced Thursday, adds 110 acres to the Old St. Hilary’s Open Space Preserve in Tiburon, expanding the scenic haven to 232 acres. The acquisition was first reported in local newspaper The Ark.
“A once unimaginable vision has become quite real. Joined together with adjacent open spaces, a new, contiguous, and truly magnificent open space will be created,” the advocacy group Tiburon Open Space, a party in the purchase, said on its website.
Dubbed the Tiburon Ridge, the preserve has hiking trails with sweeping views of the Bay Area, including the Richmond San Rafael Bridge, the San Francisco skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, and Mount Tamalpais.
Jerry Riessen, president of Tiburon Open Space, called the acquisition “glorious, great news” in an interview with The Ark.
Public festivities to celebrate the deal are set for Oct. 26, though the preserve’s extended grounds are immediately open for visitors.
The series of financial transactions, involving a coalition of public and private entities, closed in late August. Marin County, the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land, and Tiburon Open Space collaborated to buy the property from the Martha Co.