Sunday, August 31, 2008 9:58 PM CDT
After selling land for FutureGen, Mattoon farmer faces new future
Farmland brings a premium price, but also end to century of family ownership
By HERB MEEKER, Staff Writer
hmeeker@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — Marty Dole never thought he would end up selling his land for FutureGen.
But Dole is among several property owners who have agreed to sell about 425 acres of land west of Mattoon to the FutureGen Alliance and Coles Together for $6.5 million.
The Alliance, made up of private and public entities from several countries, is paying $3.5 million while Coles Together has raised $3 million.
“When this all started I never figured it was going to fly,” said the Coles County farmer. The property west of Mattoon has been in his family for more than 100 years. “Then when Mattoon was picked in the final four I just didn’t think there was any way Illinois would be picked over Texas for FutureGen.”
On Dec. 18, he was in the former Time Theater talking with state officials and realized he was dead wrong. That was the day the Alliance selected Mattoon for the $1.8 billion FutureGen project.
Now in a matter of months the land sales will be closed as supporters hope a new president restarts federal backing of the energy project.
“I’m sad to see that land go. I really am,” Dole said this week. “But it is a great opportunity for Mattoon and Coles County with the jobs, the technology and for the schools. I am glad it is coming here. It will be great for the area.”
Coles Together President Angela Griffin said selecting the site west of Mattoon was a quick decision shortly after state economic development officials announced the FutureGen proposal in 2006.
Officials revealed plans for a power plant fueled by coal and equipped with technology to produce near-zero emissions above ground and store greenhouse gas thousands of feet below the surface under thick rock formations.
“Coles Together had been interested in that site as a possible development point,” she recalled. “Then when they had the FutureGen meeting in Springfield and we received the site criteria we had two days to make a proposal. We used a plat book and came up with five possible sites in Coles County.
“But it eventually came down to 200 acres out there because they had access to a railroad, the state highway, there were so few residences nearby and that land was the farthest from a body of water. That seemed to be the best of the sites we had to offer and it’s been perfect ever since. I’m not sure if it was fate or what.”
Eventually, new land options increased the potential site to more than 400 acres. The parcels of farmland and residences include 195 acres of the Leslie C. and Lula Dole Estate, a homesite of 4.3 acres owned by Kurt A. and Michelle L. Theriault, 18.35 acres of farm ground owned by the Lula Dole Trust, 60 acres of farmland in the Leslie C. Dole Trust, a homesite of 7.9 acres of Willey Nelms and 140 acres owned by Marty Dole.
The prices to be paid for these parcels range from $318,000 to $750,000 each. Subtracting the purchase prices for the residential parcels the average price for acre for 400-plus acres of farmland amounts to $12,506 per acre, according to Coles County land records.
That is about double the price paid per acre on farmland in that part of the county at this time.
“Yes, that is farmland but it is for development so the price is not that out of line,” Griffin said of the sale prices first set for part of the site in spring 2006. “It is a case of supply and demand. And at that point that land was needed.”
Mac Boyd of Arcola, president of the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, said Central Illinois farmland prices now average $6,633 to $7,350 per acre for land rated good to excellent.
The Alliance and Coles Together received a good deal, Boyd said.
“The price paid for farmland in the path of development is usually three to five times the farm price value. I would say this price is not high at all. Actually, that is a bargain,” said Boyd of the FutureGen land purchase.
Dole said the land sale doesn’t mean he is retiring from farming. He owns farmland elsewhere and a house several miles south of the FutureGen site. He has been arranging for a like-kind farmland transaction, which allows farmland owners to acquire similar land to what they sold with less tax obligations.
“I’ve got too many family responsibilities here. I’m not going anywhere or changing the way I do things too much,” he said.
As if to prove his point, Dole started talking about the headaches of this summer —heavy rains, wind and hail and the work on FutureGen.
“Add in FutureGen and it’s been a hard summer. A combination of all that has made it stressful,” Dole said.
He is not 100 percent sure FutureGen will finally come here due to the intangibles in Washington. But he is confident some development project will go there.
“Everything now with FutureGen depends on DOE and the new president. But I think something is going to be built there. Even if it is not FutureGen it will be similar to it with carbon sequestration,” he said.
Contact Herb Meeker at hmeeker@jg-tc.com or 238-6869.
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injustice85 wrote on Aug 30, 2008 10:48 AM: