Landowners want to swap land with State of Florida for multi-use development near Sunshine Skyway

Except for a lot of water and mangroves, there's not much to look at from the south end of the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

But a group of investors that already own a large portion of the nearby land wants to change that.  The planned project is called Skyway Preserve, and it includes Tahiti-style over-water bungalows.

"It'll have retail and hotel, fishing, visitor activities and offices.  So it would be a live, work, play, visit kind of facility," said Honey Rand, spokeswoman for Skyway Preserve.

The entire project hinges on a property swap that the group wants to make with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.  The investors would turn over nearly 1,000 acres of land on the south side of the bridge, including Rattlesnake Key, in exchange for 77 acres it wants on the other side of I-275.

Under the proposed plan, the partnership would build a marine mammal research center and a marina at what is now a rest stop.

Mariella Smith of the Tampa Bay Sierra Club says the group opposes the deal.

"Acres that they're proposing to trade to us, is nothing but these mangrove islands out in the bay.  They're largely undeveloped.   They consist mainly of mangroves knee-deep in Tampa Bay, and so they're planning to trade us some swamp land in Florida.  The proverbial bull -- bad deal in order for us to give them some of this high and dry land at the foot of the Skyway," said Smith.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says it is reviewing the proposal but has yet to receive a formal application for the project.