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Interior Department Investigates Renewable Energy Speculators

Grant Gannon — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:00:56 +0000

Remember the Interior Department’s ongoing investigation into possible abuses of the Royalty-in-Kind program? Now the department’s Inspector General has started to look into possible abuses by companies seeking to develop renewable energies on BLM land.

Three years ago, BLM received six applications for solar energy projects. In the last year? 130, including one for 300,000 acres from Cogentrix Solar Investments.

The focus of the investigation is renewable energy companies as well as speculators that have applications pending for BLM leases and are seeking to be acquired based on the value of those applications.

According to the LA Times:

Officials said last week that the inspector general’s office of the Department of the Interior was investigating Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar Inc.’s recent acquisition of Hayward, Calif.-based OptiSolar, and its unfinished renewable energy projects, for $400 million.The deal gave First Solar control of what the company described as OptiSolar’s “strategic land rights” to 136,000 acres of public land in San Bernardino, Riverside and Kern counties.

In acquiring OptiSolar, First Solar acquired the lease applications, not the land itself. Those applications are no guarantee according to Greg Miller of the BLM.

“There is no value associated with a mere application, which could be rejected by us for a variety of reasons,” Miller told the Times.

As a result, application approvals for solar energy projects have been suspended while officials sort out what’s going on.

Read more at:
“Renewable Energy Sparks a Probe of a Modern-Day Land Rush,” Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2009.

For Sale: 30-Acre Napa Valley Vineyard

Grant Gannon — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:48:25 +0000

Tired of some sommelier always offering overpriced vino? Think you could churn out a choice wine using your own grapes? Then what’s stopping you?

This 30-acre Napa Valley vineyard is all about the dirt . Jocelyne Monello of Heritage Sotheby’s International Realty has it listed for $6.9 million.

Almost all of the property is dedicated to grape growing. It also has a 2,400-square-foot aging building, a 5,200-square-foot outdoor work pad, and a 1,000-square-foot residence on the premises. Better yet, it already has an approved permit for a 100,000-gallon winery.

At $6.9 million, the property is a solid investment in itself. The current owner has a triple net lease that brings in $300,000 a year.

Remember, you may not be able to direct films like Francis Ford Coppola, but at least you could try to make wine like him.

Supreme Court Rules 9-0 Against Hawaiians’ Land Claims

Eric OKeefe — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:00:02 +0000

Last week the nation’s highest court ruled that Native Hawaiians do not have a legal claim to state lands totaling more than 1.2 million acres. Native Hawaiians as well as the state’s Office of Hawaiian Affairs had asserted that a 1993 Congressional Apology Resolution by the federal government for the illegal overthrow of Hawaii’s monarchy in 1893 had recognized the “inherent sovereignty of the native Hawaiian people.”

Read more at:
“Court Rules Against Claim to Hawaiian Lands,” L.A. Times, March 31, 2009.

Bidding to Start at $22 Million for 69-Acre Napa Winery

Eric OKeefe — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:50:42 +0000

Bidding on Kirkland Ranch Winery closed yesterday at noon. The sealed bid auction started at $22 million for the 69-acre Southern Napa County winery, which includes 45 acres of vineyards. Bidders also had the option to purchase an additional 186 acres of land of which 110 are under vine. The opening bid for the combined properties was $26 million.

The $22 million reserve price is less than half what the winery was valued at when it entered bankruptcy in 2006. According to this article in the Press Democrat, hopes for a more traditional sale faded with the mortgage meltdown and subsequent credit crunch. Braun Auctioneers, the Beverly Group, and International Wine Associates were brought on by the winery to direct the sale.

The Kirkland family built the 57,000-square-foot winery ten years ago. It is permitted to process 200,000 gallons of wine annually, however, it has capability to produce up to half a million cases per year. Its cellar has storage for 3,000 oak barrels. In addition, use permit allows retail sales and public tastings by appointment and up to 74 events annually at its banquet and meeting facilities.

Border Fence Spikes Demand for Appraisers

Eric OKeefe — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:17:43 +0000

670 miles. That’s the distance along the U.S.-Mexico border that the Department of Homeland Security wants to cordon off with its 18-foot-high border fence. The sheer size of this massive undertaking and the number of property owners already disputing the government’s valuations has led to a severe shortage of qualified appraisers, particulalry in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.

According to a report that ran in the Houston Chronicle, the Justice Department expects about 270 condemnation lawsuits against local landowners with the potential for 80 holdouts that could go to trial next spring. But there’s a catch: Uncle Sam has already got the Valley’s largest appraisal firm on retainer. That means for many landowners, the only option is an expensive one: an out-of-town appraisal firm, which could cost upwards of $10,000.

Tom Barrack Takes Control of Neverland

Eric OKeefe — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:00:28 +0000

Earlier this month, AP reported a development that every real estate professional in Santa Barbara County fully anticipated: Neverland no longer belongs to Michael Jackson. The new owner of the 2,500-acre trophy property? That was even less of a surprise: Sycamore Valley Ranch Co., an affiliate of Tom Barrack’s Colony Capital.

Jackson’s financial difficulties are nothing new. Neither is Barrack’s deft maneuvering. The California billionaire made his fortune buying up bad real estate loans from troubled S&Ls. In May, the billionaire implemented the same m.o. when he bailed out Jackson after the entertainer defaulted on a $24.5 million note on Neverland.

Prior to purchasing Neverland in 1988, the property was known as the Sycamore Valley Ranch. According to the AP report, the property’s new owner is a joint venture between Jackson and an affiliate of Colony Capital LLC, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction who was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity.

Ted Turner Tops the 2008 Land Report 100

Eric OKeefe — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:00:59 +0000

For the second year in a row, Ted Turner take top honors as America’s largest landowner with more than a dozen properties totaling more than 2 million acres.

Add to this more than 100,000 acres in Argentina, where he owns two estancias in Patagonia and one in Tierra del Fuego, and the media mogul’s holdings are an empire unto to themselves, ranking larger than 48th state, Delaware.

Here, in a Land Report exclusive, is an excerpt from his recently published memoir, Call Me Ted , is the story of how he went about creating Turner Ranches, an entity that dates back to his acquisition of Montana’s Bar None Ranch.

Turner details his love of land in "Call Me Ted"

“Give Me Land, Lots of Land” from Call Me Ted:

After buying the Bar None Ranch and spending increasing amounts of time in Montana, I fell even more in love with the area. When I enjoy something, I have a tendency to overdo it, and when I was told that a larger ranch was coming on the market, I was interested. Jane and I were still getting used to the scale of the Bar None when I told her that now I was going to look into a property that was many times larger.

The Flying D Ranch is more than 119,000 acres, situated between the Gallatin and Madison Rivers. It’s a beautiful property with good trout streams and it had a lot of pasture that would be perfect for a large bison herd. Jane thought I was crazy but for $21 million (or about $200 an acre) it seemed like it would not only be a great place, but also a terrific investment. I bought it in 1989.

Like most large ranches, the Flying D contained a lot of signs of human impact, like power lines and poles and barbwire fences. One of the first things I wanted to do was get rid of all this junk and barbed wire. My goal was to restore the property to what it would have looked like 150 years earlier, before the white man came. It was a lot of work, but we removed just about every sign of human disturbance, save the dirt and gravel roads.

Part of my desire to own this land was to make sure that it was never developed. Conserving this property for future generations seemed like the right thing to do, especially with so much development happening in that part of the country. I worked out a conservation easement with the Nature Conservancy that guarantees to repopulate the property with bison, an animal that I’d been fascinated by for two years. I purchased my first bison back in the 1970s – a bull and two cows – and kept them at Hope Plantation (where I also had been raising and breeding bears, cougars, and other animals that had been native to that area in earlier days).

I knew that the bison population had once numbered in the tens of millions before dropping to below a thousand, and for the Flying D to look like it looked hundreds of years before, we needed a large her.

During my early years of ranch ownership, my enthusiasm did lead me to make some mistakes. For example, the Flying D had hundreds of miles of barbed wire fencing and I had every bit of it removed, thinking this would allow the bison to roam free on about eighty thousand acres. I learned that when you do this, the animals tend to overgraze certain areas and undergraze others, and we had to bring back some limited fencing — not barbwire, I might add.

The Bar None and the Flying D gave me so much pleasure that I decided to buy as many large properties as I could reasonably afford. By the end of the 1990s, I had purchased two more ranches in Montana, three in Nebraska, one in Kansas, and one in South Dakota (they’re used primarily for bison ranching).

Then between 1992 and 1996, I bought three large ranches in New Mexico. The biggest, Vermejo Park, is nearly 600,000 acres, and together these three ranches cover more than one million acres. They are also used for bison ranching, as well as hunting and fishing, and Vermejo sits on top of valuable natural gas that is being extracted by an energy company that has the rights. They do this work very carefully, extracting the gas while protecting the ranch’s beauty and wildlife.

I’ve also enjoyed working on the return and protection of threatened and endangered species. In addition to bison (of which we now have about 45,000 head), we’ve worked to reintroduce about twenty other species. These include gray wolves, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and black-footed ferrets. These were all challenging projects so I looked for the best people I could to help manage the properties.

I hired Russ Miller in 1989 and he’s been with me ever since, doing a terrific job as general manager of the ranches. In 1997 I created the Turner Endangered Species Fund, recruiting Mike Phillips (who led the effort to bring back the gray wolf to Yellowstone) to run the organization, along with my son Beau, who studied wildlife management at Montana State University after graduating from The Citadel.

In Montana, I learned to love fly-fishing. It’s one of the few things I do that’s not only interesting and challenging but also relaxing. Unfortunately, it’s not a sport you can enjoy during a Montana winter (except on rare occasions), but I learned that there are rivers and areas in the Patagonia region of Argentina that are similar to Montana. Since South America is counterseasonal to the United States, I could fish there during the North American winter. In ’97, I purchased a nine-thousand-acre ranch in Patagonia named La Primavera, and in 2000, a 93,000-acre property named Collon Cura. I also bought a 24,000-acre ranch and fishing lodge on the island of Tierra del Fuego. These three properties all feature great fly-fishing.

Subsequently, I acquired two more ranches on the Great Plains of Nebraska and one in Oklahoma, primarily for raising bison. Today, with over 2 million acres, I’m the largest individual landowner in the United States. We operate our ranches responsibly from an environmental viewpoint and also have an outfitting business that allows hunters and fishermen to use our properties on a limited basis. With revenues from bison sales, some controlled forestry, energy leases, and private hunting and fishing, the ranches turn a small profit.

Owning the properties has given me tremendous pleasure. My connection to nature goes back to my early childhood when I spent hours outdoors either alone or with Jimmy Brown. I’d fish, gig for frogs, or just observe the wildlife around me and these times helped me through a lot of loneliness and gave me great peace of mind. Being outdoors is my chance to unwind, clear my head, and think. The time I spend in nature refreshes and recharges me and reminds me how much raw beauty exists in the world — and how careful we should be to preserve it. The ranches are also great places for me to spend time with friends.

On nearly every trip I make in the United States or Argentina, I invite friends and family. I’ve also hosted business colleagues and world leaders. (I’m proud to say that three Nobel Peace Prize winners have been among my houseguests — Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter, and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.) I also enjoy observing and interacting with nature and it’s a special feeling to be part of the natural environment.

One of my favorite experiences involves a bird I befriended several years ago at my Snow Crest Ranch in Montana. It was a baby magpie that had fallen out of its nest and was lying on the ground. My house staff and I pulled together a box, some paper towels, and an eyedropper, and gave it food and water. The little magpie responded and we pulled him through.

In the process we bonded, and I named him Harry. We bought a traveling cage for him and took him with us when we moved from one ranch to another. He learned to talk and would up providing great entertainment. We would let him out of the cage during the day and he’d follow me around.

When I’m at a ranch I get a FedEx package from my office of the previous day’s mail. With Harry, I’d sit on my couch reading my mail and once I was through, I’d crush the pages into a ball and throw them on the ground for Harry to play with. He charmed everyone (including Gorbachev — he sat next to his coffee cup one morning at breakfast and gave him a couple of light pecks on his famous forehead). Harry became a little too feisty and ran into trouble when he started dive-bombing people and we were concerned that he might put someone’s eye out. We decided we had to take Harry to the Beartooth Nature Center in Red Lodge, Montana. He still lives there, and to this day, whenever I see magpies flying overhead, I think of my old pal Harry.

I’m proud of the work we’ve done to preserve and protect the properties and I’ve tried to do everything I can to make sure that they’re maintained after I’m gone. With my passing the properties will be protected by conservation easements. In certain parts of the country, my rancher neighbors have grown suspicious of me and created theories about ulterior motives I might have, going so far as to speculate that I might be trying to tie up and control water rights for entire regions. None of this is true. As long as the conservation laws of the United States remain in place, the land will be protected from development in perpetuity (and we’ve taken similar measure with the Argentine properties).

I’m often reminded of Scarlett O’Hara’s father in Gone With the Wind, who told her, “Why, land’s the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.” I’ve realize this to be true, and I’m proud to know that I’ve done what I can to make sure that my land is protected.

You can purchase a copy of Call Me Ted by visiting Amazon.com

68,000-acre Onyx Ranch in California Sells for $48 million

Grant Gannon — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:57:08 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning on a huge transaction in California: the 68,000-acre Onyx Ranch in the Sierra Nevada Mountains just outside of Bakersfield sold for $48 million ($705 per acre) to a joint partnership of the CIM Group, a leading urban development group, and Los Angeles-based Renewable Resources Group. Given present credit markets, the acquisition was funded by equity.

News of the closing was first reported last week by the Bakersfield Californian. Cole Frates, a partner in Renewable Resources Group, told the Californian that the ranch, located in Kern County, could eventually become a wind farm capable of producing between 300 and 500 MW. The ranch had been owned by Rudnick family members. Their Rudnick Estates Trust was represented by Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

More:
LA Company close to buying part of Onyx Ranch
LA energy firm closes purchase of Onyx Ranch

Renewable Resource Group
CIM Group

Onyx Ranch Map
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Sold! Oregon’s 42,500-Acre Ochoco Ranch

Eric OKeefe — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:00:19 +0000

The heavily timbered Ochoco Ranch, located in Central Oregon just 30 minutes from the red hot market in and around Bend, sold last week to a buyer from Texas who first saw the property at the website of the listing broker, Mason & Morse. Originally listed in 2007 for $48.5 million ($1,143 per acre), the price was subsequently lowered to $42.5 million ($1,000 per acre).

“We listed the Ochoco in April 2007, so it took about 18 months for it to sell,” said Robb Van Pelt, Managing Broker for Mason & Morse Ranch Company. “Properties of this caliber are few and far between, so 18 [months] to two years is the norm. Sell it too quickly, and you know you underpriced it.”

Located in Crook County, Ochoco Ranch features 35 miles of spring fed creeks and 65 mapped springs. It sits adjacent to the Ochoco National Forest and the Lookout Mountain Roadless Management Area along its eastern border and abuts private ranches on the other sides. In addition to the deeded acreage, Ochoco Ranch controls the cutting rights on an adjoining 3,111+/- of private land under a timber for grass trade use agreement.

According to the Mason & Morse website, the property included 42,428 acres of timbered high country in one contiguous block. Distinctive elements include: no public access; a high percentage of forested lands; smooth, gently rolling terrain with deep soils allowing the ranch to be very usable and productive; very secure, easily controlled and inexpensive to operate.

Among the possible uses for the property were:

1) A private and secure retreat for family/business recreation purposes, possibly incorporating a conservation strategy for tax savings benefit.

2) A buy-and-hold strategy allowing the value of the land and timber to continue growing.

3) Splitting the property into 4 to 10 smaller ranch properties for resale.

4) Developing a small area into a clustered development with “common access” to keep the remainder a large, open, natural property protected by a conservation easement.

5) A resort overlay designation for a world class destination involving mountain recreation.

Clint Eastwood Goes One on One with The Land Report

Eric OKeefe — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 07:00:23 +0000

Clint Eastwood sticks to his guns. Not just when creating iconic characters such as Rowdy Yates, “Dirty” Harry Callahan, and Bill Munny or in his scintillating body of work as a director, but as a landowner. He’s interrupted a family vacation to discuss his breathtaking development overlooking California’s Central Coast.

BY ERIC O’KEEFE
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2007

Right now he’s hammering home a point, one that applies not just to him but to everyone who wants to buy and build on a special piece of property. “It’s your private domain, and in the end, you’ve got to make yourself happy, not anyone else,” he says.

That’s exactly what Eastwood has done at Tehama, a 2,040-acre swath of rolling hills and rugged canyons high above Monterey Bay with panoramic views from Point Lobos to Santa Cruz. Deer, fox, turkey, quail—scores of species inhabit the pristine property, yet its strategic location is an integral aspect of its appeal. “We’re just a few miles as the crow flies from the Pacific, 10 miles from Carmel, and just 5 miles from the airport. It’s slightly back from the fog belt. We’re just on the edge. It’s sunny up there,” he says.

“People like me are looking for a place where they can have a quiet life and yet still be close to things. Me? I like elbow room. But it’s nice to know that if I want to go to the Carmel Bach Festival or listen to some jazz in Monterey or watch the Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, it’s just minutes away. If you want to go to dinner in Carmel or Monterey, you don’t have to drive forever to get home,” he says. He laughs off my next question.

“I bought it I can’t even tell you how long ago—over 30 years,” he says. “I was drafted in the Army in 1951 and was stationed at Fort Ord [a nearby Army base overlooking Monterey Bay]. I always liked Carmel. I thought if I ever could afford to or figure out how to make a living there, I might like to live there.” Eastwood not only figured out how to make a living but eventually bought a “little house as a weekend retreat,” as he puts it. It was the first of many investments he made in local property, but it may have been the most important one. In buying that small house, he fulfilled a commitment to himself, one that would have long-lasting implications. “Finally I just moved up there permanently,” he says.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Eastwood’s career as a filmmaker took off. Proof came in 1972 when he bested John Wayne as Hollywood’s top box-office draw. By this time, the Monterey Peninsula had become more than just a place to call home. His directorial debut, Play Misty for Me (1971), was filmed locally. He would christen his production company Malpaso, the name of a local creek. He once owned the popular Hog’s Breath Inn. And in a move that brought his adopted hometown national and international media coverage, he served a term as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea from 1986 to 1988.

In retrospect, however, it is his legacy as a landowner where he has made his greatest mark. Eastwood purchased Carmel’s historic Mission Ranch and saved it from almost certain demolition. The 22-acre property dates back to the 1850s and features stunning views of Point Lobos and Carmel River Beach. During California’s gold rush, Mission Ranch was the site of one of the state’s first dairies, and its contemporary setting, just south of the city itself, made it a natural gathering place. Barn dances and dining at the ranch restaurant were tried-and-true local traditions, ones Eastwood first came to know during his days at Fort Ord. By 1986, the then owners had turned down several offers aimed at preserving the historic farm house, meadows, and wetlands. A modern multi-unit development seemed imminent. Then Eastwood stepped in, upped the ante, and purchased the property himself. Shortly afterward he announced his intentions, saying simply, “I will do the best I can to keep it like it is.”

Decades later, that was clearly his mantra at Tehama. Many of the existing roads follow deer paths and old ranch ruts. Carmel Stone, a lightweight native shale found at the property, is used throughout. Tehama’s nursery uses seed stock gathered on-site: California live oak, Monterey pine, and California buckeye. Meadows are used as storm water basins, slowing runoff and replenishing the aquifer. Wastewater gets reclaimed and is then used to irrigate the championship golf course. Solar energy helps power the club house.

As Eastwood talks about Tehama, a distinct echo emerges, one that harkens to his experience at Mission Ranch. “I didn’t ever want it to be a high-density development. An awful lot of developments have fairly good density. I didn’t want to do that,” he says. To that end, more than 85 percent of Tehama’s 2,040 acres was reserved as natural open space. The infrastructure, amenities, and 90 homesites account for only about 300 acres.

The story behind the Tehama Golf Club and its Jay Morrish championship course illustrates his long-term approach. “We waited and waited and waited,” Eastwood says. “Finally the property next door came on the market. It had the potential for a golf course, so I bought that from the guy next door.” His original 500-acre investment took decades to grow fourfold to its present size. “That process was probably a lot like getting a movie into production: very time-consuming and labor intense.”

Eastwood notes that membership at his golf club is by invitation only. Exceptions are made, however, for a certain group of longtime locals. “It’s been amazing how the wild turkeys have done. The deer multiply like crazy. They’ve become much less skittish. Just hanging around for free food. There’s a lot of wildlife up there, especially since we’ve put in the golf club,” he says with a laugh.

“We did it all with native grasses. The only thing we seeded was the greens,” he adds. “The late John Zoller was our guy. He got us experimenting with native grasses. … We didn’t cut a lot of trees. We moved a few around: 200- and 300-year-old oaks. Slid them 25 yards over. The trees are very healthy up there. Much younger.”

Investments such as Tehama, Mission Ranch, and the Pebble Beach Company are not Eastwood’s only ties to the land. He has also donated several key parcels to the Big Sur Land Trust.

“My dad likes to buy land and leave it,” says Alison Eastwood in a subsequent telephone interview. “He’s all about slowly building and doing stuff, keeping everything very sparse. He likes to make subtle changes and find simple ways to keep the land very natural, wild, and untouched.”

In that regard, his legacy speaks for itself. Perhaps the most telling insight into his long history of buying and preserving land in and around the Monterey Peninsula is his underlying motivation. When I ask him the simplest of questions—why he bought the property that would become Tehama in the first place—he gives the sort of answer one would expect from Clint Eastwood: “Because I liked it.”