Itap a story repeated countless times over the decades across the West: A mile-wide farm held for generations by the same family finally heads for sale, as the new members weigh the risks of holding on, raising corn and sugar beets, in an age when agribusiness is a mega-industry.
But the game of selling farm property has changed — particularly the auction game — as information technology makes offerings much more attractive for sellers and widens the opportunities for buyers and investors.
“Today’s farm auction is structured to create better potential for the buyer,” says Scott Shuman, partner in Hall and Hall, brokers and auctioneers who have been selling western real estate since the 1940s. In 2010, Hall and Hall made a move into auctioning — and have been pioneers in structuring auctions to get better returns for farm sellers.
When the Fred Sekich Farm, east of I-25, north of Firestone, is auctioned at The Ranch/Larimer County Event Complex on Aug. 28, its 546 acres will be cut into 58 offerings — one as small as 4 acres, one as large as 141 acres, with the parceled surface water rights (176 Colorado-Big Thompson Units and 18.75 ditch shares) auctioned separately.
Those water rights may be as valuable as the land, maybe more.
“Water is gold,” says Rick Sekich, who along with his mom and two brothers are the sellers.
The Sekich family, farming near Mead for a century, assembled the current spread in the 1960s when grandfather Nick Sekich bought it, including Lake Thomas. Public Service Company bought the lake to cool its atomic power project in Platteville, which was later decommissioned; other pieces went to family members, leaving a near-section-sized parcel near Hwy 66 and Colorado Boulevard.
Sekich points to the appeal one of these parcels could have for a developer: one with views of Longs Peak surrounds a smaller lake that could be a water feature.
A developer came close to buying in 2006, he adds, just as a boom market topped out. Fast-forward 14 years, and developers are now pushing north from Firestone, where homeowners today have major grocery shopping and other attractions.
Grandpa Nick Sekich would have had little idea the value that surface water would hold as Colorado grows.
“Itap really gone up,” says Sherri Rasmussen, contract manager for Northern Water, administering the C-BT’s vast distribution all the way east to Sedgwick County. When the project began in the 1930s, an acre-foot sold for $1.50; by 2013, it was 10,000 times that.
“The price climbs because there’s not a lot on the market,” she adds.
“An auction gives everyone an equal playing field to buy for their needs in a transparent transaction,” notes Shuman, adding that water bidders need to meet requirements and be pre-approved by Northern Water.
All of this could stay agricultural — selling to an owner with holdings nearby. But either way, Shuman adds, sellers make out better in these auction sales, where buyers have an opportunity to customize a purchase.
You can drive the property — open Sunday, Aug. 4, elaborately signed to show the parcels — or come to an information day on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 10 a.m. to noon, at 13850 Deere Court, beside the John Deere dealership on Colorado 66 at I-25, a landmark Fred Sekich founded.
Hall and Hall, with 15 offices across the West, is in Eaton, Colo., 800-829-8747. The complete sale catalog is at HallandHall.com.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.