'Sconset Trust president Bob Felch said that the Trust is currently working on a joint conservation organization effort to preserve this land as open space.

"It's definitely a collaborative effort with the 'Sconset Trust, the Land Bank and the other conservation groups to see if we can come up with conservation and or recreational solutions," said Felch. "The Coffin land has been on our radar screen for at least the last 10 years and it's a top priority."

Should conservation groups be unable to afford this price tag, it is likely that the land will be sold to developers who could put up around 90 houses on the land that is zoned for threeacre and half-acre lots.

Last week, Henry Coffin's land, which includes 260 Milestone Road at 65.9 acres, the site of the Siasconset Golf Course assessed at $8,189,800, and 53.4 acres at 270 Milestone Road, valued at $10,593,700 was listed with the Maury People and Jordan Real Estate agencies, which are currently trying to generate open space preservation interest on the island.

However, attorneys for the family have asked that the realtors not speak with the media about the marketing of their properties, said Gary Winn of the Maury People.

As a result, Winn could not comment on his firm's listing of the Coffin land for sale.

The Coffins are hoping that either one, or a combination of the island's major conservation organizations, including the 'Sconset Trust, the Nantucket Conservation Foundation or the Nantucket Islands Land Bank will want to buy the properties and put them into permanent conservation.

To date, none of these three groups has made an offer on the properties, but all of them are interested.

"There had been ongoing and previous discussions with family members and representatives of the family regarding the property," said Land Bank Executive Director Eric Savetsky.

Savetsky added that no single island conservation organization likely has the capital to purchase the properties on their own and that some sort of purchasing partnership would probably be the only way the land could go into conservation.

"I think in order to acquire all of that property, there's going to have to be some significant fundraising to buy that property," said Savetsky. "It would leave us in a substantial debt that we would not be able to afford. I think a partnership and fundraising would be key components if there's going to be any purchase."

If there are no takers from Nantucket's land protection community, the land could be sold to anyone who comes up with the asking price. Once there is a serious offer, before that potential buyer can act, the Nantucket Golf Club must decide whether it wants the property, since it has a right of first refusal on the land.

During its development phase, the island's newest golf club toyed with the notion of making its course 27 instead of 18 holes, a plan that could have meant the closing of the 65-acre Siasconset Golf Club and the use of that club's existing nine holes. Although that did not happen, the Nantucket Golf Club did retain the right to decide whether it wanted to buy this land once it goes up for sale and the first offer on it is tendered

Nantucket Golf Club Manager Tom Bresette said the club's board of trustees has not made a decision on how to proceed when an offer is made on the land.

"I think our status is still the same. We'd like to see it not developed, but the board has not made any decision on what they want to do," said Bresette.

Years of speculation over what the Coffin family might do with their prized vacant land coalesced on May 18, 2007 when the Conservation Commission issued a requested wetlands delineation of the two properties, a typical sign that the Coffins were indeed getting ready to put their land on the market. Two years prior to the ConCom ruling, in the early summer of 2005, the Coffins' 10- year lease of its golf course to the neighboring Nantucket Golf Club expired and the Coffin family has been running the Siasconset Golf Club since then. After Henry Coffin, Jr. died in June 1993, his four children; Henry, III, Mitchell, Stephanie and Robert sold 250 acres to the Nantucket Golf Club, which opened its world-class, exclusive 18-hole golf course on the land in 1998.

Rumors of potential development of the Coffin's 'Sconset land also circulated four years ago when Winn purchased six of 13.9 acres from Robert "Skinner" Coffin at 320 Milestone Road in 2004 for $6 million to develop his 14-lot Sconset Hydrangea cluster subdivision

currently under construction. I