Some property deals depend on how many cars a place can accommodate. This one hinges on room for a plane or two.

The Alexis Creek ranch, near Williams Lake in the Chilcotin district of British Columbia, features a seven-bedroom home with nine bathrooms, sweeping riverfront views, access to several lakes and a free herd of cattle with a few bulls.

But the main dealmaker is likely a 1,500-m paved landing strip, complete with heated hangar, which qualifies as a federally approved commercial airport.

It's probably the least that you'd expect when you consider the property's list price is a cool US$23.5 million.

Photo courtesy of Cascadia Pacific Realty Ltd.
The asking price for the Alexis Creek spread, near Williams Lake, ranks among the highest for ranches in B.C.'s history.

The asking price ranks among the highest for ranches in B.C. history. But the Alexis Creek ranch's listing agent does not sound overly worried about a lack of potential buyers.

"Some of them take over a year (to sell)," says Irv Ridd, president and CEO of Cascadia Pacific Realty. "Sometimes, we get surprised."

He says the likelihood of the successful buyer owning a plane is quite high.

The current owner, a Seattle-based electronics firm magnate, parks his plane there every two weeks. But the 70-something owner has decided to sell in order to spend more time with his grandchildren.

The $23.5-million list price seems paltry in comparison to the record $93-million sale of the Douglas Lake ranch in 2003 to American entrepreneur Stan Kroenke, who owns the NFL's St. Louis Rams, the NBA's Denver Nuggets, the NHL's Colorado Avalanche and many other sports properties.

But the Alexis Creek price is downright lofty compared to the $5.7 million that the famed 4,000-acre (1,600-hectare) King ranch in southern Alberta sold for in 1997.

Bill Bateman and his son Cody, of Cochrane, bought that place, which was owned by the late reclusive King brothers. But Ridd, who has been peddling commercial and "subjective" sites for about 27 years, expects the buyer for the rural B.C. ranch will likely come from outside Canada.

"Considering who's been buying ranches the last few years, my bet is it will be offshore before it's local," says Ridd.

The current owner is due for a nice windfall. He picked up the property for less than $5 million from German Prince Richard Wittgenstein in 1992.

"But (the current owner) has added millions of dollars worth of infrastructure," says Ridd. "He's added a seven-bedroom and nine-bathroom house, a five-bedroom guest house and apartments for his staff, 10 pivot irrigators and a paved 5,000-ft. DOT-approved (Department of Transportation) Class Two airstrip and hangar."

Cascadia Pacific Realty is an exclusive affiliate of Christie's Great Estates and will market the ranch, first developed in 1887, through the international firm's publications and network.

"I facetiously say that we've got a DOT Class Two airstrip that happens to be surrounded by a ranch," says Ridd. "It'll be a destination for (the new owner) to go and enjoy the lifestyle of his property."

The ranch also contains 331 acres of housing subdivision land, about 10 acres of commercial business development property in the centre of the neighbouring town of Alexis Creek and a substantial but unestimated value of timber in a region hit hard by the mountain pine-beetle epidemic.

Ridd says it's unusual to include cattle in the list price, because cattle have different prices depending on the time of year.

But the cows will be, no pun intended, a moot point.

"Ranchers can't afford to buy ranches anymore - in a lot of areas," says Ridd. "If you want to make money and own a ranch, you've gotta go to Saskatchewan, Manitoba, northern B.C. or northern Alberta - somewhere the land is more reasonable on a price-per-acre basis."

Ridd says he has not calculated the land cost at Alexis Creek - which has 10,000 deeded acres and 250,000 acres of Crown grazing land, of which the ranch has exclusive use - because the price per acre won't matter to the new owner. The buyer will simply want proximity to a major centre.

"It's only 30 minutes by aircraft" from the Lower Mainland, he adds.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)