RICHARD HOWARD: Feoffees and Little Neck: Time for open discussion - Ipswich, MA - Ipswich Chronicle.
Here's the note I posted to a new article on the Feoffees of the Ipswich, MA, public schools and the tenants at Little Neck, a fine piece of land, which the former seems to be considering selling to the latter, after 350 years of receiving rental income from a series of tenants:
Why would local public sentiment ever permit the Feoffees to consider selling this amazing asset? This land is so valuable. It is close to Boston, served by commuter trains, spectacularly sheltered and with views that 200 families would gladly pay huge amounts of annual rent to have seasonal or year-round access. Why give that away cheap, when it could produce an ongoing income to meet a significant portion of the needs of Ipswich's public schools, in perpetuity?
The market for well-located land will rise over time. The stock market, or the other things in which the Feoffees, or highly paid investment advisors, might invest the proceeds of the sale will never exceed the value which can be derived from this choice bit of land.
I'm sure the year-round residents of Ipswich are very generous people, but I just don't understand why they would ever even consider selling this awesome, undervalued and sure-to-appreciate asset.
The Feoffees should be required to auction off a single vacant building lot each year to determine what the rental value really is. I think you'd all be amazed. (If I were conducting the auction, I'd give the right to rent the lot to the highest bidder at the annual rental that the second-highest bidder offered.) And then the other tenants should be apprised of that cost, and their rents raised within a couple of years. Fully depreciated cottages which anywhere else would sell for $50,000 would also sell for $50,000 on Little Neck, instead of for prices which reflect the hilariously low annual land rental. And the schools of Ipswich would have a fine annual income.
Why are you being so generous to the tenants, giving them an amazing windfall? Many other towns wish they had an income-producing asset as fine as Little Neck, and you're thinking about selling it, cheap!
Whose interests do you have at heart?
The market for well-located land will rise over time. The stock market, or the other things in which the Feoffees, or highly paid investment advisors, might invest the proceeds of the sale will never exceed the value which can be derived from this choice bit of land.
I'm sure the year-round residents of Ipswich are very generous people, but I just don't understand why they would ever even consider selling this awesome, undervalued and sure-to-appreciate asset.
The Feoffees should be required to auction off a single vacant building lot each year to determine what the rental value really is. I think you'd all be amazed. (If I were conducting the auction, I'd give the right to rent the lot to the highest bidder at the annual rental that the second-highest bidder offered.) And then the other tenants should be apprised of that cost, and their rents raised within a couple of years. Fully depreciated cottages which anywhere else would sell for $50,000 would also sell for $50,000 on Little Neck, instead of for prices which reflect the hilariously low annual land rental. And the schools of Ipswich would have a fine annual income.
Why are you being so generous to the tenants, giving them an amazing windfall? Many other towns wish they had an income-producing asset as fine as Little Neck, and you're thinking about selling it, cheap!
Whose interests do you have at heart?
This blog has more observations and history on this story. See them collected at http://lvtfan.typepad.com/lvtfans_blog/feoffees-land/.
Comments