THE BEST LAID SCHEMES OF MICE AND MEN

Square Top Ranch

Formerly owned by Hence Barrows, the 1,733 acre Square Top Ranch in Blanco Basin of Southwest Colorado outside Pagosa Springs was sold to the Russell Family of Albuquerque in 1992 for $1.9 million. They sold it to Kansas City developer Tom Smith for $7.75 million in 2004. Smith held ownership just long enough to qualify for long-term capital gains tax treatment before signing a contract to flip Square Top Ranch for $13 million to a developer group lead by Rusty Mackey of North Palm Beach, Florida in 2006. The Mackey Group struggled during the escrow to come up with the cash needed close on the purchase, extending the closing deadline several times while they lined up equity partners. Mackey had been involved in golf course community developments in the South and had gained a following of celebrity investors that included television Talk Show Host Maury Pauvich as well as an assortment of professional athletes.

Mackey’s group immediately engaged planning firm RPI to draft development plans that envisioned hundreds of new homes in the pristine Upper Blanco Basin. Their plans included quite optimistic revenue projections which were used in their marketing packages to secure more equity investors. All this was taking place while the real estate bubble was inflating at a high rate of speed in Southwest Colorado and elsewhere.

As initial details of their development plans began to leak out of meetings with Archuleta County Planning Officials, opposition lined up among existing property owners in the Upper Blanco Basin. Residents enlisted the help of Robert Lindner, owner of several thousand acres of ranches in SW Colorado, including El Rancho Pinoso in the Upper Blanco Basin. (Robert and his brother Carl earned their way to billionaire status through United Dairy Farms, Chiquita Brands International, American Financial and other companies they built, acquired or controlled.) Durango attorney Jeff Robbins was retained by Lindner  and other Blanco Basin property owners to strategize legal challenges to development of the Ranch.  Mackey and Co. would not even get a lead off first base ahead of the firestorm they had ignited in the Blanco Basin. They certainly didn’t expect the crowd that overflowed out of the County Commissioner’s Room and into the halls for the first public meeting.

PART TWO NEXT WEEK