Lake Tahoe estate going to public

      CARSON CITY -- The largest remaining privately owned piece of land on Lake Tahoe will soon belong to the public.
      Nevada officials and the American Land Conservancy announced Friday that the title of the 140-acre Whittell estate, which includes a mile-long stretch of lake frontage, has been acquired from the private owner through a partnership with Del Webb Corp.
      The complicated exchange will see the property, located on the Nevada side of the lake, under management by the U.S. Forest Service by midyear.
     

Months of negotiations have succeeded in arranging a land swap that will put the historic Whittell estate into public hands. Associated Press photo

A purchase price was not disclosed, but the property was valued at $50 million.
      The deal's close, which came two days after a final option to buy the property had technically expired, was praised by Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, both D-Nev., along with representatives of the American Land Conservancy.
      "This will be the largest acquisition of lakefront property for recreation use in decades," Bryan said. "What a wonderful New Year's present to all Nevadans and future generations of Nevadans."
      Reid said acquisition of the property will provide access to 43,000 acres of federal and state public lands in the Sierra Nevada above the lake.
      "This is a gateway to paradise," he said.
      Federal ownership of the property will also allow agencies to restore the watershed of Marlette Creek, which flows into the lake, and reintroduce a Lahontan cutthroat trout population into the stream. The measures will help slow the degradation of the lake's famed water clarity, Reid said.
      Harriet Burgess, president of the American Land Conservancy, said the transaction has been in the works several years. "I'm extremely excited and pleased that we've been able to meet our goal of preserving and protecting for future generations this wonderful, valuable asset," she said.
      The conservancy, a nonprofit group that works to preserve environmentally sensitive land, first obtained an option to buy the estate in January 1996.
      In addition to public access to the property, the University of Nevada, Reno, has plans to acquire the 11 buildings on the estate for use as research facilities and classrooms.
      The buildings, built between 1938 and 1941, have made the deal more difficult because the Forest Service did not want the structures, only the land.
      The Whittell estate includes the vacated but historic Thunderbird Lodge, a 16,000-square-foot chateau built by San Francisco millionaire land baron "Captain" George Whittell.
      The property was obtained by the conservancy from Jack Dreyfus, a wealthy retired New York financial manager who bought the estate from Whittell in the early 1970s.
      Dreyfus had extended a purchase deadline several times so efforts could continue to acquire the property for the public. The last deadline was Dec. 31, and there were concerns that another lapsed deadline could result in the property being sold to a private party.
      Both senators praised Dreyfus for being patient and the conservancy for being persistent in its efforts to procure the land, which is being accomplished through an ongoing exchange in Southern Nevada by the Del Webb Corp.
      Scott Higginson, vice president of government and public affairs for Del Webb, said the Whittell property was obtained as the final piece of environmentally sensitive land needed to complete an acquisition of 5,000 acres of land for development in southwest Henderson.
      There is a moratorium on land exchanges, but the Del Webb project is continuing because it was already in progress, he said.
      A subsidiary of the Del Webb Corp. will actually own the Whittell estate until the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approves the exchange and the land can be transferred to the Forest Service, Higginson said.
      "We see this as a win-win all the way around," he said. "There were private buyers out there interested in the Whittell estate."
      Phil Caterino, project manager on the deal for the American Land Conservancy, said Del Webb was brought into the negotiations about mid-1997 because the group did not have the financial resources to close the deal on its own.
      The deal did not close until Friday because of its complexity, he said.