Pickens’ $250 Million Mesa Vista Ranch Listing Caps the Real Estate Year

What a year 2017 has been for the Texas real estate industry! Between riding the top of the charts for growth and residential value increases, the explosion of commercial development, hurricane crises, and blockbuster luxury property listings, the Texas real estate market has stayed in the spotlight. Capping the year, a legendary captain of industry put his personal retreat, an over-the-top ranch he developed over nearly half a century, up for sale.

Recognizing the limitations of his advanced age, oil magnate T. Boone Pickens listed his beloved Mesa Vista property in the final quarter of this year. The asking price? $250 million. Now 64,809 acres, Mesa Vista began as a 2,900-acre parcel Pickens purchased 48 years ago. Pickens indulged a passion for quail hunting on the site, adding to it and improving it over time to become a Panhandle showplace, encompassing more than 100 square miles of scenic lands. Mesa Vista now boasts world-class quail hunting, multiple baronial structures with lavish landscaping, extensive water features, resort-like recreational amenities, an airfield and hangar, and a picturesque chapel.

Located near the tiny town of Pampas, which is 90 miles northeast of Amarillo, Mesa Vista’s lands range from lush river bottom to rolling hills to elevated ridges and open prairie lands. Pickens cultivated the property to optimize the site for quail hunting, corporate entertaining, and recreation.

Among Mesa Vista’s many amenities:

• A 25,000-square-foot main lodge with 10,000 square feet of porch and patio space, an elaborate master bedroom suite, living areas, library, conference room, and 30-seat media room, in a park-like setting with a tennis court, a skeet/trap range, and small golf course.
• An 11,500-square-foot lake house (the subject of features in both Architectural Digest and Cowboys and Indians magazines) with over 3,800 square feet of porches and patios, three-bedrooms, four-baths.
• A 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, five bath single family home.
• A 2,250-square-foot “pub” with game room, workout area, and guest bedrooms.
• A gun building for storing firearms and ammunition.
• A 2,300-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath gatehouse.
• A private chapel building with memory garden and waterfall.
• A 6,000-foot-long airport runway and 25,000-square-foot hangar.
• An 11,000-square-foot dog kennel suitable to house up to 50 dogs.

“Selling the ranch is the prudent thing for an 89-year-old man to do,” said Pickens in a statement prepared for Mesa Vista’s marketing materials. “It’s time to get my life and affairs in order. There are many reasons why the time is right to sell the ranch now, not the least of them ensuring what I truly believe is one of the most magnificent properties in the world winds up with an individual or entity that shares my conservation beliefs.”

Feast your eyes on the “oasis in the Texas Panhandle” now for sale:

The Lodge Compound

The Lakehouse

The Chapel

The Kennel Building