Nonprofit may lease Dixon’s Orchard
Adelante seeking $1.9 million from state to restore farm as tourist destination
An Albuquerque nonprofit wants to lease Dixon’s Apple Orchard and hire disabled employees and veterans to restore the iconic site to productive use.
Adelante Development Center Inc. is seeking $1.9 million in state money to smooth a lease agreement with the New Mexico Land Office, said Mike Kivitz, president and CEO of Adelante.
Adelante, which provides jobs and training for about 1,000 New Mexicans with physical and mental disabilities, also wants to restore the orchard as a tourism destination.
“We’re more than just a business that wants to sell apples,” Kivitz said. “We’re interested in making (Dixon’s) a multi-use property.”
State Land Commissioner Ray Powell said Adelante is “worthy of consideration” as a potential bidder for the lease because it would preserve Dixon’s as a productive orchard that would provide revenue for the Land Office.
Without the orchard, the property would provide only low-value grazing rights to the Land Office, he said. Powell also said he hopes the property will attract additional bidders for leasing rights.
Wildfire and flooding in 2011 devastated the 620-acre orchard near Cochiti Pueblo, destroying buildings and killing many of the apple trees. The Land Office has provided some irrigation this year in an effort to save the 2,700 surviving trees, Powell said.
Before the disaster, the orchard made some $300,000 a year in sales and paid the Land Office about $40,000 a year under a lease agreement, he said. Since 2011, the orchard has sold no apples and produced little revenue for the state, he said.
Becky Mullane, whose grandfather started the orchard in 1944, and her husband, Jim, own the trees and trade names for the sparkling burgundy and champagne apples they produce.
Land Office officials say they want to solicit new bids for the orchard. But, under state law, a new leaseholder must agree to pay a former leaseholder for the value of improvements, said Harry Relkin, general counsel for the Land Office.
In this case, the Mullanes must be paid for the value of their trees and trade names, he said.
“Adelante would be a great bidder,” Relkin said. “That would be a real opportunity for (Adelante) and people with disabilities, and to keep the apple orchard alive.”
The $1.9 million in state money Adelante is seeking is contained in a $122.6 million package of statewide public works projects.
The capital outlay bill is pending at the state Legislature, and will require approval from Gov. Susana Martinez. Martinez’s office did not respond this week to a request for comment about the Adelante proposal.
Of the $1.9 million request, $1.5 million would pay the Mullanes for the value of improvements and $400,000 would pay for equipment needed to operate an orchard, Kivitz said.
The Mid-Region Council of Governments, a four-county governmental agency, would serve as the fiscal agent for the capital outlay funding to avoid problems with the state’s anti-donation clause, which prohibits the appropriation of state funds to private groups, Powell said.
How long it takes to form a new lease agreement with Adelante or another bidder would depend on how quickly the Mullanes can reach an agreement with a new lease holder on the value of the trees and other improvements, Powell said.
“The sooner the Mullanes were to come to an agreement and relinquish their lease, the faster we could move,” he said.
Becky Mullane said she likes Adelante’s proposal and is eager to see the nonprofit lease the orchard.
“It has been a very long ordeal for our family,” she said. “We’re ready to move on with our lives.”