Forbes Land Plans
For years I've seen ads in magazines (usually Forbes publications) offering to sell a chunk of the Forbes Family ranch near Ft. Garland, Colorado. Parts of the ranch are still for sale, but now the properities come complete with a conservation easement. Malcom Forbe's children are selling access to an undeveloped portion of the Trinchera Ranch and agreed to put a conservation easement on the property.
His children plan to raise US$70 million ($101.8 million) by selling access to the ranch so capitalists can commune with black bears, coyotes and mountain lions.
The Forbes siblings have given up their right to develop about half the ranch's 69,363 hectares near Fort Garland, Colorado, qualifying for conservation-land tax breaks.
Documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission show they have also created a company, Forbes Trinchera Ranch, to sell stakes granting ranch access.
The easement lets multi-millionaires build 930 square-metre mansions that can serve as base camps for hunting elk and bighorn sheep. The family, while managing an estimated US$1 billion inheritance, join western landowners in using conservation easements to cut taxes as land values soar.
"They are using the tax code and the land for all the benefit they can get," says local real estate agent Bruce Steffens, of Monte Vista, Colorado. "That is just smart."
Wonder if the price of those mansions drops along with the value of the easements?
His children plan to raise US$70 million ($101.8 million) by selling access to the ranch so capitalists can commune with black bears, coyotes and mountain lions.
The Forbes siblings have given up their right to develop about half the ranch's 69,363 hectares near Fort Garland, Colorado, qualifying for conservation-land tax breaks.
Documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission show they have also created a company, Forbes Trinchera Ranch, to sell stakes granting ranch access.
The easement lets multi-millionaires build 930 square-metre mansions that can serve as base camps for hunting elk and bighorn sheep. The family, while managing an estimated US$1 billion inheritance, join western landowners in using conservation easements to cut taxes as land values soar.
"They are using the tax code and the land for all the benefit they can get," says local real estate agent Bruce Steffens, of Monte Vista, Colorado. "That is just smart."
Wonder if the price of those mansions drops along with the value of the easements?
posted by Pat Burns | 7:38 PM
3 Comments:
Sorry for being obtuse. Theoretically, putting an easement on a piece of property should lower the resale price, because it is no longer as valuable. If the price of the land is lowered, then the price of the house should drop as well... making a "mansion" in the woods more affordable. Although I doubt it would approach my definition of affordable.
-Pat
i dont get it
i sit here and think ? that most of you that don't live here have one thing on your mind and that is how much the land is worth?? to you it must be the value of a mansion!!, but if that is it's value then howcome the floodgates are closed. and if this land trust is for the people, like peter forbes says then how come the 'people'dont have access to let say easement,woods and wildlife. most of the 'people' here make a very meager living or are retired or on fixed income iguess mansions are the answer for me and peter forbes?? thank god for the goverment outs god bless america.
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