MARINE SANCTUARY’S BUILDING LEASE IN KEY LARGO WON’T BE TERMINATED AFTER ALL

a bunch of cars parked in front of a building
Employees with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary will continue to operate out of its Key Largo facility, located at MM 95, bayside, after the General Services Administration rescinded a lease termination by DOGE. FILE PHOTO

Months of uncertainty surrounding the future of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary’s Key Largo office are officially over.

Serving as the hub for marine operations, an 8,000-square-foot building at 95230 Overseas Highway leased by the sanctuary was under scrutiny by President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was headed for a time by billionaire Elon Musk. A DOGE website lists 11,000-plus contracts totaling $44 billion which are up for termination.

According to sanctuary officials, the lease’s termination was officially rescinded by the General Services Administration last week. The sanctuary will have its current lease through 2031 — a win for employees who work at the office and efforts to protect everything from coral and seagrass to shipwrecks.

The sanctuary’s lease, which DOGE calculated to be $252,011 a year, was one of roughly 740 leases up for potential termination. The Monroe County Property Appraiser website lists the owner of the building as Key Largo Ace Hardware Inc.

NOAA relies on the Key Largo facility as a critical hub for marine operations in the mid- to northern Keys. More than half of the sanctuary’s staff is based at the facility, monitoring the health of ecosystems within the sanctuary and safeguarding vital resources.

David Burke, acting sanctuary superintendent, said the Key Largo Marine Operations Center plays an essential role in supporting NOAA’s mandates under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act by overseeing vessel maintenance, marine research, coastal and ocean monitoring and emergency response.

Those activities “directly contribute to the protection and management of the Florida Keys marine resources,” Burke said. “We could not be more excited to continue to support the Upper Keys community through this location.”

Designated Nov. 16, 1990, the sanctuary protects 2,900 square nautical miles of waters surrounding the Florida Keys, from south of Miami westward to the Dry Tortugas, excluding Dry Tortugas National Park, starting at the mean high-water mark.

Jim McCarthy
Jim McCarthy is one of the many who escaped the snow and frigid temperatures in Western New York. A former crime & court reporter and city editor for two Western New York newspapers, Jim has been honing his craft since he graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 2014. In his 5-plus years in the Keys, Jim has enjoyed connecting with the community. Jim is past president of the Key Largo Sunset Rotary Club. When he's not working, he's busy chasing his son, Lucas, around the house and enjoying time with family.