California is well-known for its skyscraping real estate prices.
So maybe it’s not surprising that the owner of Point Buckler Island — 50 acres of marshland at the edge of San Francisco Bay in Solano County — recently listed the property for $75 million. The island comes complete with two helipads and a 400-foot deep-water dock.
Originally home to duck and kiteboarding clubs, the island is being marketed as a “great escape for sports gatherings or corporate events” sitting just east of the Carquinez Strait near the San Francisco Bay’s border with the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, according to the real estate listing.
John Sweeney, who bought the island in 2011 for $150,000, is selling the property because the state sued him a few years ago for illegally building levees on the island. State and federal regulators said the work was disrupting wildlife and tidal flows, which Sweeney has denied, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The owner is wanting to pay off the fines that were delivered,” said Marianne Bordogna, the listing agent with Keller Williams Realty. “There are liens that go with the property that would be cleared once it’s in escrow and paid off.”
But Sweeney may also be hoping to attract the attention of one potential buyer, noting in his listing that the island is “near the future Flannery Utopian city planned for Solano County.” The reference is to Flannery Associates, a group of tech billionaires and capital investors that has spent more than $800 million in recent years buying up undeveloped land in the county with the apparent intent of building a new city, according to surveys sent to local residents.
In a recent social media post, Sweeney refers to himself as the “Owner of Point Buckler Island — a tiny island in San Francisco Bay that could block development of Flannery Associates new California Forever City.” It’s not clear what Sweeney means and he doesn’t elaborate.
For its part, Flannery Associates has generally kept a low profile and has not specifically stated its specific goals for the land it has already purchased.
Meanwhile, Bordogna said the owner received interest in the island property a few months ago before it was put on the market, but she declined to elaborate. She noted that the small island has shipping containers that were converted into lounge areas and storage for equipment and would be included with the sale of the property.
“There aren’t many private islands available ever,” she said. “This is one right in the Bay Area — it’s in a great location and has great wind for kiteboarding. The scenery is beautiful. You have views of the hills and the water and the flowers that come with the marshland. It’s a very pretty piece of property.”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
