newhall land and farming company type private industry real estate founded 1883 founder newhall family headquarters valencia california usa website http www.valencia.com newhall land headquarters in valencia the newhall land and farming company is a land management company based in valencia california united states . the company is responsible for the master community planning of valencia as well as the management of farm land elsewhere in the state . contents 1 company history 1.1 baca grant 2 references 3 external links company history edit the company was incorporated on july 1 1883 by the five sons of henry newhall william edwin henry walter and george a businessman who had purchased a number of former mexican land grants . newhall had died the previous year and had instructed his sons not to sell the land . 1 the company initially had 143 000 acres 579 km of land ranging from monterey to los angeles counties . unfortunately the income generated by ranching was not enough to support the families of all five sons in the comfortable lifestyle they had grown up with 2 and they began to sell off portions of their vast holdings in order to generate income . successive land sales allowed the newhalls to maintain their lifestyle but william who was known by his middle name mayo a graduate of yale university understood that they needed a better way to generate income . after a few more land sales mayo took the income and reinvested it into the land by developing agriculture . the land around their headquarters the former rancho san francisco was cleared for citrus trees and lima beans were planted in the sacramento valley . the income from these crops allowed the company to grow in the 1920s . additionally one more land sale a 38 000 acre 150 km parcel in 1922 to william randolph hearst for 1 million to be paid in installments over ten years helped fill the company s coffers . the collapse of the st. francis dam in 1928 was devastating to the company . much of its livestock orchards and buildings were destroyed . although the city of los angeles agreed to pay reparations for its role in the dam s construction those payments would not be available for some time . compounding the problem was the onset of the great depression . george newhall who was the last surviving of mayo s brothers and treasurer of the company died that year and mayo discovered that the company was bankrupt and on the brink of insolvency . at this point mayo was in his late seventies and growing increasingly frail . he turned the operation over to his son in law atholl mcbean a san francisco businessman who had held onto his entire savings during the wall street crash . with mcbean s money the company was able to hold on long enough for the reparations payments to come through . that combined with the last of the hearst payments was enough for the company to climb out of debt . by his third year in charge newhall land and farming reported a profit of 25 000 2 and by 1935 they resumed dividend payments the first since 1930 . henry newhall had purchased rancho san francisco from speculators who had purchased it from ygnacio del valle in the hopes of finding crude oil . alex mentry had discovered oil in 1876 just to the south of the rancho which became the pico canyon oilfield but the group of investors who sold to newhall had had no such luck . mcbean was convinced no oil was to be found on the land which by now he had renamed newhall ranch but he leased it to barnscall oil company anyway . to his great astonishment barnscall struck oil in 1937 and there was so much oil that over the next few years 44 oil wells were producing millions of dollars of black gold for the company 2 which ended all of their cash flow problems . by the 1950s urbanization began to encroach on newhall ranch . the county of los angeles hoping to encourage more residential development changed its rules for property taxes taxing land at what its best use would be regardless of its actual use . newhall ranch was assessed to be a residential zone 3 which substantially increased the tax burden of newhall land and farming the williamson act would be enacted in 1965 to counteract this problem but it came too late for newhall ranch . mcbean understood that agriculture alone was not going to pay the taxes and that if the land was to be designated for residential homes the company might as well head in that direction . real estate developers made offers to buy the land but family members did not want to sell pieces of the family homestead . instead mcbean hired city planners and the company opted to create a brand new city which would be called valencia after the oranges they had grown for so many years . 4 construction began in the early 1960s the master plan adopted in 1965 and the first new homeowners moved in in 1967 . mcbean retired soon after turning over the company to non family members . during the next two decades the company continued to flourish . valencia experienced steady growth and garnered praise as a planned city . during 1971 the city saw the opening of magic mountain amusement park which was sold to six flags in 1979 . in the 1980s the company expanded its oil interests to seven states and canada and found another revenue source in leasing its land for film and television show production . in 1994 the company submitted plans to the county for a new master planned community to be named newhall ranch . in 2004 the company was purchased by lennar corporation and lnr corporation for approximately 1 billion leaving newhall land and farming owned 50 % by lennar and 50 % by lnr a spinoff real estate investment trust that manages commercial and industrial properties through a new holding company called landsource communities development llc . 5 in early 2007 by a further transaction lennar and lnr each sold 34 % interests in landsource communities development llc to a new set of investors including the california public employees retirement system . in june 2008 landsource communities development llc along with newhall land and farming company and other subsidiaries filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with the us bankruptcy court for the district of delaware . in july 2009 landsource communities development llc and its subsidiaries emerged from bankruptcy under a new control structure with a new set of owners . 6 7 baca grant edit the firm owned luis maria baca grant no. 4 near crestone colorado in saguache county colorado in the san luis valley from 1951 until 1962 when retaining the mineral rights newhall sold it to arizona colorado land and cattle company . 8 references edit company history . newhall land and farming company . archived from the original on 2007 02 22 . retrieved 2007 04 20 . a b c the newhall land and farming company . encyclopedia of company histories . the gale group . retrieved 2007 04 20 . worden leon february 19 1997 . postwar growth of the santa clarita valley . santa clarita valley historical society . retrieved 2007 04 20 . hamilton denise april 3 1988 . homes on the range developers pushing ranchers out . los angeles times . retrieved 15 july 2016 . http www.scvhistory.com scvhistory sg012804.htm lennar corporation july 20 2009 . landsource to emerge from chapter 11 as newhall land development ; lennar corp. to own part of debt free land company . prnewswire . retrieved 15 july 2016 . hong peter july 21 2009 . lennar corp buy 15 % stake in newhall ranch development at big discount . los angeles times . retrieved july 21 2009 . gussie fauntleroy october 30 2013 . history of the baca ranch baca national wildlife refuge part ii 1900 to present . crestone eagle . kizzen lakai . retrieved february 16 2015 . external links edit company web site newhall ranch web site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title newhall land and farming company & oldid 738940330 categories companies established in 1883companies based in los angeles county californiareal estate companies of the united statesagriculture in californiasanta clarita california navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 11 september 2016 at 22 05 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia 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