A 12,000-acre Panhandle ranch formerly owned by the late oil magnate T. Boone Pickens, traded last month, closing a choppy chapter in the property’s history.
Mesa Vista Ranch LLC, owned by a group of investors that includes Midland oilman Bailey Peyton and Georgia-based investor J. Bradford Smith, sold the MV2 Ranch in Roberts County to Botas Rotas LLC, owned by Southlake businessman Tim Cummings, according to public records.
Spanning 12,061 contiguous acres, the property includes several improvements designed to support game, especially quail. A seven-mile water line operates constantly with sprinkler heads set every thousand feet, and the land’s position above the Ogallala Aquifer offers the potential for up to 50 new water wells, according to the listing.
Republic Ranches agent Bryan Pickens — no relation to the late corporate raider and wildcatter — had the listing. The final sale price is undisclosed, but the property was listed for $16.5 million, almost $1,400 per acre. It was originally listed for $19.6 million last spring.
The original Mesa Vista Ranch grew from an initial 2,900-acre purchase Boone Pickens made in 1971. Over the next four decades, the ranch swelled to more than 64,000 acres and improved into a luxury hunting destination, served by an FAA-approved airport and anchored by a 25,000-square-foot mansion dubbed “the Lodge,” according to published reports. When Pickens decided to list the property in 2017 for $250 million, it was the most expensive property on the market in the country.
After several price cuts, the Mesa Vista Ranch sold in 2022 within 10 percent of its final asking price of $170 million, according to Land Report. Oil investor Bill Kent bought 36,000 acres that included the mansion. A rancher named Travis Chester bought the portion that would become the MV2 Ranch, which he sold to Mesa Vista Ranch LLC in 2023.
The company quickly landed in a legal squabble over Pickens’ prestige. Kent’s company filed a lawsuit alleging that Peyton and Smith formed Mesa Vista Ranch LLC to flip the 12,000 acres. By using the Mesa Vista name in their marketing materials, the lawsuit claimed, Peyton and Smith misrepresented their largely unimproved acreage as part of the luxurious resort Pickens created. The suit was resolved in April when Peyton and Smith agreed not to use the Mesa Vista name in their marketing.
Bryan Pickens’ ambitious listing campaign included a video produced last spring in which executives from the outdoor lifestyle magazine “Field and Stream” hunted and camped on the ranch with country singer Ben Roberts.
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