A north Texas-based investment group paid $ 240 million for more than 31,000 acres in central Texas.
Alcoa Corp. sold the former Rockdale industrial estate in Milam and Lee Counties, 45 miles northeast of Austin.
The property was previously used for an aluminum smelter and coal mining, but has been restored with lakes and farmland.
Alcoa said the buyer is “SLR Property I LP, a subsidiary of a private real estate investment company based in Texas.
Dallas real estate agent Bernard Uechtritz closed the deal after spending six years marketing the sprawling property called Sandow Lakes Ranch.
“I put it up for sale on Halloween 2015 and here we are on Halloween 2021 and it’s finally closed,” said Uechtritz. “The Alcoa deal is certainly my biggest sale – not in terms of size, but it was the most complex and challenging.”
The property has water rights and 15 lakes. There are thousands of acres of pasture and farmland.
Parts of the land have also been pitched for potential manufacturing and industrial uses.
The Alcoa wing is 50 km long and more than twice the size of Manhattan. The aluminum company had owned the property since the 1950s and had a plant there that was closed in 2008.
“It is not only stunningly beautiful, but also incredibly diverse in terms of its usefulness,” said Uechtritz. “Alcoa took a fossil fuel Goliath and turned it into a center for green energy and pure water.
“It’s an incredible achievement,” he said. “They took back those gaping coal mines that started 30 years ago and ended up with grasslands and a series of incredible lakes.”
Sandow Lakes Ranch has been marketed for its agricultural uses, water resources, and potential industrial development.
A French company has proposed building another solar park with more than 1 million power generation modules on part of the property.
“The successful sale of the Rockdale site shows the value we can unleash as we prepare former sites for redevelopment,” said Rob Bear, vice president of Alcoa, in a statement. “Since Rockdale closed, we have met our commitments and gained a large number of tenants who are helping to create economic development opportunities.
“We are confident that the work we have done in preparing this site for this completed transaction will bring significant benefits to our former host community and the Rockdale areas,” said Bear.
The sale is the latest in a series of large land deals from Icon Global Group von Uechtritz.
Uechtritz is best known for selling the legendary WT Wagoner Ranch in northwest Texas in 2016. The 535,000-acre ranch northwest of Wichita Falls near the Red River went to sports team owner and real estate developer Stan Kroenke in one of the largest transactions of all time.
And Uechtritz is currently marketing the 80,000-acre Turkey Track Ranch in the Texas Panhandle, which is priced at $ 200 million.
He said the Sandow Lakes Ranch attracted a lot of attention. It was even suggested to Amazon as a potential location for its second headquarters.
“It took a long time to find the right people, as well as the right steward for the Wagoner Ranch,” says Uechtritz. “We had a lot of competitors.”
Sandow Lakes Ranch stretches for 50 km of lakes and farmland.(Global group icon)
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