For sale: 1,100 acres on a working, income-producing farm, with a log cabin home, and “seeping vista views” stunning views of both the Mohawk Valley and Catskill Mountains.
There’s just one catch:
335 of those acres, across eight parcels, are covered in solar panels as part of NextEra Energy’s 50-MW project mostly off Route 20 and Gilbert’s Corners Road, but also Pomella, Beech and Sakon Roads.
Coldwell Banker is listing the site at 485 Gilberts Corner Road for $15,350,000; the listing went up February 20.
The site, according to the description “is one of the largest working solar farms in all of New York State, secured by a 25-year lease with guaranteed lease payments totaling in excess of $20 million.
“This property portfolio consists of over 1,000 acres of farmland and solar arrays on eight separate tax parcels—including a working farm with barns and residences.
“The largest portion on this income-producing portfolio is from the 25-year lease on the solar panels, covering 355 acres.
“Additional crops and farming”–hay, corn and alfalfa—“as well as several homes and barns on the property that collect rental income…
“Total current income collectively of over $1.1 million a year. This is a once in a lifetime investment and opportunity for a special buyer.”
The property is listed as belonging to High Hill LLC with a Katonah, NY address
Word of the listing caught neighbors and local officials by surprise—though they’d long been warned it was likely, that too often, once they’re completed, large-scale solar projects pass from hand to hand-to-hand.
“I get the feeling they don’t care,” Sharon Supervisor Manko said of NextEra.
“One of my concerns all along was that this would happen. I just didn’t think it would happen this quickly.”
Blenheim Supervisor Don Airey heads supervisors’ energy Committee and has long been working to get fair compensation for projects like NextEra’s.
“And so it begins,” he said when he heard the project was listed for sale. “The ‘second phase’ of the Ponzi scheme. And this is not just here. It’s just another aspect of energy ‘industry.” Carpetbaggers and opportunists welcome, all in the name of climate change.”
NextEra’s plans first became public in February 2017.
They were approved by the Public Service Commission in January 2021 as an Article 10 project, which meant it was subject to state—and not local—review.
Nearly since the start, the Town of Sharon has been doing battle with the developers over damage to roads and two local farmers have now said construction has impacted their wells, with blasting or pounding into the bedrock diverting their water supply.
Assemblyman Chris Tague is staging a press conference at one of the farms, the Salisbury farm on Sakon Road, at 1:30pm today, Thursday, to highlight the impact of large-scale solar on “rural, open, agricultural farmland.”