Largest land offering in state — 50,500 acres in Bay Area — sold. See ‘wild’ property

A massive, private and mostly untouched Bay Area property that spans 50,500 acres has been sold to a Danville-based foundation that intends to preserve the land and its legacy.

The William Brown Foundation purchased a majority of the ranch while local businessman and rancher Bill Brown, who heads the organization, purchased the remaining property, including the ranch’s headquarters and home.

The purchase “ensures the ranch’s protection from urban encroachment and future development while preserving the ranch’s diverse eco-system,” according to a news release.

N3 Cattle Company Ranch will continue as a working cattle operation, according to the news release. Brown is a fifth-generation Californian whose family has been involved in ranching since the 1850s.

Listed at $68 million, the land spans four counties and is the largest land offering in California, according to listing agent Todd Renfrew of California Outdoor Properties. The property was sold for the first time in over 85 years. The deal was finalized on Friday.

“N3 Cattle Company is completely private and uniquely preserved, healthy and wild as it has been for hundreds of years,” Renfrew said in a statement. “It is a rare haven of original California landscape and wildlife.”

Brown is the founder and board chairman of Walnut Creek wholesaler Central Garden and Pet Co.

The selling price was not disclosed by any of the parties involved. However, the San Jose Mercury News reported that the ranch appears to have been bought near the $68 million asking price. The newspaper said its estimate was based on documents filed in three of the four counties where the transactions took place.

“I have a great love for our state’s ranching heritage, and have long been committed to preserving ranch lands in California,” Brown said in a statement. “It is humbling to be able to purchase this historic ranch and I consider it an honor to preserve its future, protect the land and watersheds, and maintain this amazing property.”

Located just south of Livermore, and east of Oakland and San Jose, the land encompasses 80 square miles, bigger that the nearby city of San Francisco. The ranch sits as it has for hundreds of years, according to the California Outdoor Properties listing.

“It’s pretty much untouched,” Renfrew told The Sacramento Bee in an article when the property first hit the market for $72 million. “It’s what it looked like 1,000 years ago.”

The property features include diverse terrain, vegetation and important watersheds and creeks. The working ranch has a four-bedroom main house, a bedroom annex, bunk house, horse barn, shops, four cabins for employee housing and an additional 14 hunting cabins.

There are 200 miles of private roads for hiking, trail running, mountain biking, hunting and riding ATVs.

The property is home to lots of wildlife, such as elk, deer, pigs, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, quail, turkey and doves.

The sellers are two sisters, Sandra Naftzger and Natalie Naftzger Davis, who are fourth-generation ranchers, Renfrew said.

Renfrew said the siblings have been operating the ranch for the past 20 years.

“My father was all business,” Sandra Naftzger told the Wall Street Journal. “We were always taught to be respectful of the cattle operation. We’d be spending time with the managers and the buckaroos. It takes a village.”

The property is under the Williamson Act, meaning the land will not be developed or otherwise converted to another use for a number of years.

“I spent a great deal of my youth on my grandfather’s cattle ranch, which helped shape me as a person,” Brown said. “It is our hope that future generations will have similar experiences to mine and, by being close to nature, they will fully appreciate the need to preserve our open space.”