55-acre Santa Cruz ranch with ocean views, owned by O’Neill daughter, heads to auction
A 55-acre Santa Cruz area ranch owned by the daughter of the late Jack O’Neill, founder of the O’Neill surfing brand and often considered the father of the modern wetsuit, is heading to auction.
Previously listed for $6.3 million, Rancho de los Corralitos – nestled between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Pacific Coast – is selling without reserve.
Platinum Luxury Auctions, a Miami-based luxury auction company, will oversee the bidding on July 18, 2020.
The ranch is a second home for Shawne O’Neill. It offers a main cabin, guest cabin and 55 acres of pristine woodland, organic Howard walnut orchards, an equestrian facility and riding trails.
“Corralitos has long been the perfect getaway for residents of Santa Cruz and San Jose with a second home in this rural retreat,” a representative for Platinum Luxury Auctions said in an email. “The ranch is ideal for Californian equestrian enthusiasts. The property includes a professionally-designed main barn, pasture barn, and expansive riding trails.”
Shawne O’Neill, in a response to an email inquiry through the auction company, said the ranch is not her primary residence and her family hasn’t spent much time there lately. However, she said she appreciates the charm, natural setting and potential that the land has to offer.
“The property has a really great ‘feng shui’ about it, with nuances like changes in foliage and prevailing winds throughout the grounds, that make it feel like it’s much more than just one, uniform property,” she said. “Plus, the ability to have views all the way to the ocean on a clear day from atop the property’s highest hilltop — where there is a terrific building site for an estate home — is really unique for this area. There is also a lovely creek running through the property.”
O’Neill said her daughter is involved with horses “and we did quite a few things there with regards to her practice and training on the property, in addition to the fun we had with the organic walnut farming.
“There is just so much potential at the property that we never fully developed,” she added. “Time certainly does fly.”
The 2.5-acre building site on the property with ocean views would make “a perfectly private dream estate,” according to Platinum.
The ranch grew primarily apple orchards before the walnut replanting in the 1970s, according to montereybayfarmers.org.
Shawne O’Neill purchased it in 2008, the Monterey farmers market website said. The orchards produced its first crop in 2011, a small batch that was donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank and Grey Bears. The next year, the farm produced roughly 16,000 pounds of walnuts, which were sold wholesale in Sacramento, according to the agriculture website. In 2013, production jumped to 20 tons.
“We’ve been winding down the farming of the organic walnut orchards on the property,” O’Neill said in the email. “I originally had some really ambitious plans with regards to farming activities on the property and other things, but I was simply never able to make the time to fully dedicate myself to it. I’d love to see the next owner really do something on a much greater scale and make it an even more impressive piece of real estate.”
