FOR SALE: One slightly used Alligator Alcatraz; serious conservationists only

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Waterfront property. Plenty of wildlife. Previous tenants moving out.

FOR SALE – 17,000 acres of prime South Florida real estate. One lightly used airport. Recently vacated detention center. Includes runway suitable for deportation flights, emergency operations or your next constitutional controversy. Among the amenities:

• Endless wetlands.
• World-famous wildlife.
• Surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve.
• Minutes from Everglades restoration projects.
• Freshly emptied after processing more than 20,000 immigration detainees.

Seller motivated. Price: That’s complicated.

Looks like Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is finally ready to unload one of the county’s most controversial pieces of real estate.

After spending the better part of the last year fighting Gov. Ron DeSantis over what became known around the world as Alligator Alcatraz, the mayor is now pitching the old Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport — along with its 17,000 surrounding acres — as the ultimate conservation acquisition.

Forget commercial aviation. Forget detention camps. Forget future development.

Levine Cava — who once called herself the water warrior and wore a cape to promote conservation — wants the land folded into Everglades preservation forever and ever, amen.

Okay, the property isn’t really for sale. At least not to you. Or me. Or some billionaire looking for a hunting lodge.

Or even the National Park Service, although that is who La Alcaldesa wants to have it, ultimately.

Pero federal rules apparently prevent the county from simply donating airport property to the Park Service. And aviation regulations mean the county has to receive fair market value if it disposes of the land. Appraisals have that at about $200 million.

Read related: Daniella Levine Cava finally takes a tougher stand vs Alligator Alcatraz

So, Levine Cava’s memo reads less like a traditional sales pitch and more like one of those listings that says: “Ideal for one specific buyer.”

That buyer?

The State of Florida. Again. Because this wasn’t actually a new idea.

Before DeSantis commandeered the property in June of last year under emergency powers to build Alligator Alcatraz, Levine Cava says her administration had already been talking with state officials about Florida purchasing the property, keeping the runway for emergency operations and pilot training, and ultimately protecting the surrounding wetlands by transferring them into the Big Cypress Preserve.

Then… well, the guv decided he had another idea. And instead of becoming protected conservation land, it became one of the country’s most talked-about immigration detention facilities.

Read related: Independent medical access must be given to detainees at Alligator Alcatraz

Last week, like five minutes before Levine Cava dusted off the old proposal, DeSantis said Alligator Alcatraz will be shut down within two weeks. Maybe she’s making it public this time for a reason.

The memo argues the county no longer has much use for the aging airport anyway. It’s remote. It’s expensive to maintain. It serves limited aviation purposes. And after becoming internationally famous for all the wrong reasons, it doesn’t exactly scream “economic development opportunity.”

Besides, the mayor writes, permanently protecting the property would ensure no future governor decides to turn it into Alligator Alcatraz II: The Sequel.

Not surprisingly, DeSantis isn’t interested. Asked Thursday whether the airport should become part of Everglades restoration, the governor practically shrugged.

If tearing up the runway would magically restore the Everglades, he suggested, maybe. But from his perspective, experts haven’t convinced him it would make much difference, and the airport has long served a useful purpose for training flights.

Read related: How long should Florida’s guv be able to spend on a ‘State of Emergency’?

Of course, the biggest irony here is that everyone suddenly seems to agree the detention center should close. After costing the state of Florida an estimated $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion with a B — daily operating costs of up to $1.2 million, or around $3,570 per detainee per day — the concentration camp that should never have opened in the first place, is emptying out after lots of people made bank (more on that later).

It’s what happens afterward that’s becoming the next political fight.

Environmentalists see a once-in-a-generation chance to lock away 17,000 acres forever. The governor sees a perfectly functional airstrip that can stay there just the way it is (maybe to be used again in some nefarious way). And Levine Cava sees an opportunity to make sure no future administration turns one of South Florida’s most environmentally sensitive landscapes into another political experiment.

Whether anyone is actually willing to write the check remains the million-dollar question.

Or, depending on whose appraisal you believe — the $20 million question or the $200 million question.

Either way, don’t expect to find this listing on Zillow anytime soon.

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