Donald Trump is a busy man these days. In the past few weeks, the nation watched Trump hector President Barack Obama to release his birth certificate, and consider a presidential campaign of his own. Meanwhile, local residents have wondered what The Donald plans to do with his prime Albemarle County real estate.
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The Trump Organization plans to keep its 700-plus Albemarle County acres, the former Kluge Estate Winery, as a “first-class vineyard,” says a Trump advisor. |
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Last month, the Trump Organization purchased more than 700 acres of the Kluge Estate Winery & Vineyard at auction for $6.2 million. Rumors almost immediately started swirling over the future of the land, formerly owned by Patricia Kluge and William Moses, who will remain involved with the property. Among the rumors: Will the winery become a golf course?
An Albemarle County course wouldn’t be Trump’s first golf interest in Virginia. In 2009, Trump bought the Lowes Island Club golf course in Potomac Falls, just outside the nation’s capital. The renamed Trump National Golf Club, Washington D.C., is an 800-acre property with two 18-hole courses.
Prior to the winery auction, Trump bought 216 acres from a trust named for John Kluge’s son. The property, which abuts Kluge’s former residence—the 45-room Albemarle House, bought back by Bank of America at a foreclosure sale—was once a private golf course designed by Arnold Palmer. However, the land is under conservation easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.
According to easement restrictions, the only activities permitted on the property are agriculture, viticulture, horticulture, and temporary or seasonal activities that “do not permanently alter the physical appearance of the Property.” They also include “temporary outdoor activities involving 100 or more people [which] shall not exceed seven days in duration,” unless approved in advance. Trump remains interested in Albemarle House, but Jason Greenblatt, executive vice president for the Trump Organization, says its current price is “completely unreasonable.”
Trump’s winery property is zoned “rural area,” which “does allow, with a special use permit, a golf center,” says Ron Higgins, Albemarle County’s chief of zoning. “But it would have to go through a public hearing, [and a] special use permit process” with the county.
The property is also under conservation easement. According to Higgins, the easements “would determine what you can and cannot do, depending on how they are written.”
According to an easement dated October 18, 2005, Kluge Estate Winery & Vineyard, LLC granted VOF “an open-space easement in gross over, and the right in perpetuity to restrict the use of real estate” of 648.29 acres in the county. Under the easement restrictions, earth removal “shall not alter the topography of the Property except for dam construction to create private ponds” or to build permitted structures and buildings. The easement also prohibits a full-service restaurant.
Contacted for comment, Trump’s business advisors say a golf course is unlikely.
“We do plan to keep it as a first-class vineyard,” Greenblatt tells C-VILLE. “We have no plans for a golf course.”
Greenblatt adds that it would be “a shame not to be continuing it as a vineyard.”
“We think that Bill and Patricia are very smart and talented people,” says Greenblatt. “And we will have them continue to manage the property.”