In 2021, Roger Himovitz bought a 214-acre piece of land on the Gaviota Coast, just north of Santa Barbara, California. The property, known as Rancho Dos Pueblos, holds an almost mythic status in the region, not least as the probable site of explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo’s first contact with the area’s indigenous Chumash people in 1542.

“There’s a lot of history going back to early human existence — a lot of Native American history — and I believe that this particular property holds the key to the preservation of this part of California,” says Himovitz, a real estate developer in the state who’s known for his conservation efforts. “So I purchased it with that in mind and have spent the last three years trying to get to know the property pretty well.” 

One of the first things he did as the estate’s owner was to found the Dos Pueblos Institute, whose mission is to “transform the ranch into a public resource managed by the nonprofit Dos Pueblos Institute for the benefit of the community”, according to its website.

But Himovitz says serious health issues “preclude [him] from being able to devote the time and energy to the property that [he] had hoped to”. So he’s putting it on the market for US$65 million ($86.9 million), co-listing it with three separate brokers: Steven Moritz, with Sotheby’s International Realty — Brentwood Brokerage; Nancy Kogevinas with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services California Properties; and George Logan with 22 West Realtors.

“It’s a very unique property,” he says. “I think it holds a unique place in both the history and the archaeology of this part of the world.”

Cleaning it up

When Himovitz bought the ranch for US$33 million, it had suffered years of neglect. Once the heart of a massive, 15,000 acre property owned in the 19th century by a man named Nicolas Den, it had been parceled out in a haphazard way over the years and then partially reassembled, leaving Himovitz with a piece of land whose shape resembles an upside-down boot. The top of the boot hits the water — with 2,100 ft of beach frontage.

It took Himovitz several years to iron out all the legal issues that plagued the estate. Today, the titles are free and clear —he got Santa Barbara County to formally recognise several parcels that had murky records of ownership — and most idiosyncrasies are gone. 

An approximately 11 acre agricultural area in the middle of the property is still owned by someone else, though, and accessed via an easement. It’s a holdover from one of the land’s many previous chapters, when a man named Sam Mosher, who founded Signal Oil, built the world’s largest orchid farm on the property.

Himovitz eventually added to the land by purchasing an additional five acre plot, which came with a house he calls “the ranch house”. In total, the ranch now spans 219 acres.

What’s there

At the time of purchase, the ranch was already host to what Himovitz calls “one of the very few remaining onshore abalone farms”, which, he says, is the commercial home to “the last species of abalone that was native to the
California coast”. 

That farm didn’t come with the sale, so Himovitz bought it outright. “We’re raising abalone to put back into the ocean, which is a very interesting part of the property,” he continues. “And we’re doing a lot of research in seaweed and urchins and restoration of endangered species.”

The ranch comprises more than a dozen structures. There’s the 4,000 sq ft ranch house, which Himovitz renovated, with three bedrooms and three baths. It has a pool nearby, along with a riding area and a two-stall horse barn. 

The core estate parcel also came with a roughly 5,000 sq ft home known as Casa Grande. Built in the 1920s, the house has five bedrooms and seven baths, a wood-panelled living room, a poker and cigar room, staff quarters and a four-car garage.

Most of the ranch’s other buildings also date from the 1920s, when yet another owner — oil magnate HG Wylie, who had a hand in reassembling the ranch’s many parcels — built hay barns, dairy barns, garages, stables, a machine shop and a street of houses for the ranch’s workers.

How it’s used

Himovitz has rented out the ranch for a variety of commercial film shoots, including the fourth season of Love Island. Some locals were apparently less than enthusiastic about this development, as the Santa Barbara Independent reported: “Concern grows over raunchy reality show’s effect on nocturnal creatures as rumors swirl about plans for campground on property”.

The abalone farm also generates income, but Himovitz wants to keep expectations fairly low. “The likelihood of there being a profitable commercial component is difficult, due to its size,” he says. 

“Agriculture, particularly in California, is a difficult and expensive proposition. The operation of the ranch and its maintenance is a significant expense. The potential income generation is significant, but of course, in the short period of time that we’ve owned it, we haven’t reached that yet.”

Himovitz, however, has put the land to good use through the Dos Pueblos Institute. Its initiatives include outdoor education, bringing youth groups to the beach so they can enjoy it; a regenerative agriculture programme that helps educate community members about restoring native grasslands and indigenous plants; and the abalone farm, which also has a research component.

Who will buy it?

Himovitz speculates that a buyer could be a single individual who wants a massive compound or a group of investors who could develop the land. 

“I think in total it’s now 18 legal parcels, which could be reconfigured in an infinite number of ways,” he says. “The beach is a major asset. It’s a significant portion of the experience, and it’s probably one of the very few presently private beaches along the California coast.”

Himovitz is clear-eyed about the institute’s prospects in its present location. While he’d love to work with the next owner to continue the institute’s work on the land, he says, he’s aware that might not be a possibility. 

“Ideally, it would be tied to the land, but not necessarily. It could survive in another location,” he says. “This has been a passion project for me — to be able to enhance and provide access to the public, and to the Native Americans whose land this was originally.”

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