40 acre sustainability education center for sale in Western Colorado

by carl vostatek
Category
Real Estate For Sale
Location
Molina, Colorodo

Welcome to The Molina Center experience! Our facility on 40 acres in scenic Western Colorado is currently a retreat and sustainabilty education center. Retreat types offered are primarily yoga, meditation, and silent.

The property has been in the family since 1962. My father purchased it with the intent for it to become a community of like-minded people following the teachings of a book called Oahspe, focused on self-sufficiency, organic farming, cooperative living, a plant-based diet, and the hope to be of service to neglected and cast off children. Over the years many attempts were made to fulfill this vision with varying degrees of success, and a few failures. The current iteration evolved out of the concern for Mother Earth, her continuing degradation and advancing climate change.

As means of revenue, a five-unit Lodge was built three years ago not only for retreat attendees but also for Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com guests. In addition, six campsites (6) were developed for Hipcamp visitors.

Structures on site include: an Administration Center with commercial kitchen, dining hall, office, yoga studio, and solarium; staff residence and shop (called the Beehive); a gazebo; an RV trailer with utilities hooked up; a labyrinth; medicine wheel; garage; carports (2); water treatment building; pump house; storage container; and underground survival chamber.

Other features  are: solar photovoltaic system; composting toilets in Admin Center; camp fire pit; gray water separated from black;  outdoor toilets for campers, and of course, a garden area.

The property has excellent irrigation water rights (so very important in semi-arid Colorado). Domestic water comes from a well and is treated with an extensive reverse osmosis system.

About six acres are tillable and a pressurized underground sprinkler system is in place for farming use. The remainder of the land is hillside with pinon and juniper trees and plenty of sage.

An interesting fact is the property was home to Native Americans several thousand years ago. Numerous arrowheads have been found on the land and a local archaeologist identified some as pre-Fremont culture (ie- about 1500 BCE). He visited the property and spotted indications of structures. We feel the land was sacred to them…and to us.

As Trustee of the property I (Carl Vostatek) have had a life-long dream to be part of and help create an intentional community along the lines of Findhorn in Scotland as a model. I visited it in 1975 and became enthralled with what it was and the potential it offered. Some residents I met there journeyed to Colorado, and we had a “mini-Findhorn” going for a while on another property I owned. My hope was this could become the beginnings for what could eventually grow into an actual community in Molina. With this underlying desire, as an architect I developed the land’s amenities as if it were an “embryonic community”. That is, housing and related features were designed and built into what is extant today. Currently, the capacity to house about 15 people exists on the property.

In 2008, application was made to County Planning for the property’s use an an education center an resort, which was approved. The resultant Master Plan allows three more houses to be built as well as a large conference center. A five bedroom “staff” house has been designed and a building permit issued for its construction. Initial ground work has been completed, but lack of funding and interested people have caused work to be curtailed.

The develpoed property, as it exists today, is really a “community waiting to happen”. Another consideration is that it is perfectly setup to become a rehabilitation or treatment center. Community members living there could have this as another means of income.

Sale price $1,675,000.

Lastly, it gets hot here but not too hot, cold but not too cold, very low humidity, some snow but not too much (ski resort is 20 minutes away), and we don’t have earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods….or chiggers!