Who wants to (literally) help save the bees & help save the world? World-famous honey farm for sale in Napa Valley.

Published: October 1, 2019

Honey Farm For Sale!

Save The Bees, Save The World?

• Mythbusters (they filmed an episode at the farm – the one with the bees and the laptop!)
• Jerry Seinfeld and the cast and crew of Bee Movie (I understand they used my mom as a resource and also came to the farm to do some of the drawings that eventually contributed to what became the honey farm in the film – and after the film was done, Jerry gave everyone who worked on it a jar of our honey as a gift)
• Peter Coyote is a friend and fan of the farm (see video from Peter linked here);
• Susan Sarandon is a fan (Mom showed me some emails years back when her personal chef ordered some of our honey for her – Mom was so proud when that happened!);
• Wolfgang Puck (celebrity chef fan of our honey – I’ve been told) – along with other celebrity chef and restaurant fans:
• Alice Waters (Chez Panisse – Marshall’s Farm Honey is a favorite of her dessert chefs);
• Bradley Ogden and the Lark Creek Inn;
• Emeril Lagasse (he filmed an entire episode of his Emeril Green show using Marshall’s Farm Honey);
• Thomas Keller (long-time celebrity-chef fan and owner/chef of The French Laundry);
• The Fairmont Hotel (we have bees on their roof!);
• Martha Stewart (she was one of the first celebrities to ask my mom for an interview a couple of decades ago – there’s a good story behind that actually…), and truly countless others!

What else is special about Marshall’s farm honey?

1. Our honey is Kosher, all-natural, only lightly filtered and unheated raw honey.
2. Our honey has been used by the State of California as the LITERAL gold-standard for honey: When the state wants to determine whether or not imported honey is really honey – they use laboratory tests to compare it to Marsha’’s Farm honey (as the standard for what real honey is!)
3. We are a recognized trusted brand throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Hollywood and beyond – known (like in point 2 above) for our honey being the absolute best in quality and flavor.

Why is the farm for sale?

What do you have in mind?
Who should buy the farm?
How much is it?

• Ideally, we are looking for a buyer or buyers (or business partners) who can close in 60 days or sooner, if at all possible (or by the end of the year at the latest.)
• As Spencer would like to stay part-owner of the business and farm, a best-case scenario would be for someone to buy the 50% of the land that belongs to me and my sister and to buy the 25% of the business that belongs to me… and I would be happy to discuss the details of that with anyone who might be interested.
• Please bear in mind we just closed the listing with a broker and we had the land alone listed for $2,999,999 and got a full price offer shortly after the listing went live last December (2018).
• The offer fell through just now (September 2019) because the prospective buyer wanted to destroy the land and organic gardens that Spencer has spent nearly 20 years building. He was looking in to getting a variance to bull doze everything and develop the land by covering it with a storage facility, but he learned (after an inquiry with the city) that this variance would not likely be granted.
• So on a lot of levels (especially from an environmental & farmland preservation perspective), we are actually happy that the deal did not go through – but we need to move forward quickly and find a partner (or partners) if the legacy of the widely celebrated Marshall’s Farm Honey is going to be saved for future generations (future generations of bees and future generations of people.)
• The land is being sold separately from the business. My sister and I would entertain having someone buy our half of the land and then also buy into the business to help keep the business going and to expand operations (& profitability) to what they were before my mom passed away.
• Our goal is to settle for no less than a purchase price value of $2,500,000 for the land. Someone purchasing only half of the interest in the 4.5+ acres in Napa Valley could do so for $1,250,000 – a portion of which would go to pay off “our half” of the mortgage. Spencer would still be responsible for the remaining mortgage. The remainder of which would be split between me and my sister (as our inheritance from our late mother). OR If that person assumed half of the mortgage (through whatever legal vehicle there is to do so) they would (only?) have to come up with about $1,000,000 to buy our half of the land.
• The business (separately from the land) was last appraised for just over $1,000,000 before my mom’s death (without a separate third valuation for the brand) and for someone to buy 51% of the business to take it over and save it (25% from me and 26% from Spencer) – we would consider reasonable offers significantly below the last business appraisal as that would take into account the need to build the business back up to what is was before my mother passed.

Here’s an idea?