By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. and members of Val Verde County Commissioners
Court on Wednesday voted to petition the Texas Attorney General’s Office for answers
to questions about the advertised sale of ranch land in the central part of the county.
The land is reportedly being sold online to investors for the purpose of building a “smart
city.”
Commissioner Pct. 1 Kerr Wardlaw initiated the discussion at Wednesday’s meeting,
following comments about the land sales by two county residents. (See separate story.)
Wardlaw said he wanted to move to the “Commissioners’ Comments” portion of the
agenda so he could speak about the land sales.
Wardlaw said, “I just want to be clear that everything that Mrs. Hargrove said (in
“Citizen Comments”), I’m 100 percent behind. . . I was very unhappy when I found out
about the Chinese government being involved with the purchase of the land in Val Verde
County.”
Owens interjected, asking Wardlaw if he wanted to move to the item on the agenda
dealing with the land sales.
“That way we can have a full-blown conversation,” Owens said, and the judge moved to
the item – “Discussion and possible action on future development of the Sunflower
Ranch LLC.”
Owens said he “had a little speech prepared,” but invited Wardlaw to finish his comments
first.
Wardlaw said, “It is a fraud, and it is a scam.” The commissioner added that Brazilians,
Argentians and Emirati – citizens of Dubai – are purchasing the land, which is being
offered for sale on an internet site in increments of square meters.
Wardlaw said he believes the land sales should be investigated by federal law
enforcement agencies and added, “I am not for any foreign entities buying into Val Verde
County land.”
Wardlaw listed a number of boards on which he serves to preserve and protect the Devils
River, including the Devils River Landowners Association.
“I am not for this Sunflower Ranch development. I believe it’s a scam and a fraud on the
customers that are buying it, and that’s going to be the key for us to stop it,” Wardlaw
added.
Commissioner Pct. 2 Juan Carlos Vazquez was next to comment.
Vazquez said, “Judge, I’ve been getting familiar a little bit more on this for a couple of
weeks. Do we know, or does anyone know, if this property has already been bought and
by who?”
Owens then began his comments.
Owens told the court that in early 2025, he got a phone call from one of the individuals
involved in the company selling the land. Owens said the individual asked him to sit on
the company’s board of directors, an offer Owens said he immediately declined.
Owens said he understood the land was being sold at $8 a square meter, which “figures
out” to about $32,000 per acre, which the judge called “an ungodly amount of money”
for land in that part of the county.
Owens said although he asked many questions, he still isn’t quite sure how the
company’s land sales model works. The judge said while some areas in central and
western Val Verde County have water, many other areas do not.
Owens said when he asked what the company would be doing with the land, “He said
they were going to be doing crypto-mining, and I said, can you explain it? And can you
explain how people are going to buy into this and what is it that they have?
“Am I owning land? Do I own a square meter? Well, no, you own interest in that. Well,
can you tell me which one? It’s very vague. I don’t understand it, and I don’t understand
how you can get away with selling a square meter of land, but yet I don’t own the meter.
Do I own the company that owns the square meter of land?
“Well, yes, you own interest in it. Okay. So, again, how does this work? How do we get
paid back when I decide to leave, how do I get paid back? . . . It doesn’t make sense to
me. It really and truly does not make sense,” Owens told the court and audience.
The county judge said he wanted the court to involve the Texas Attorney General’s
Office, adding the owners of the land being sold are not planning to subdivide it.
Owens said he gleaned additional information about the company from its website,
westlandworld.com.
Owens said there are photos on the website of the Dolan Falls on the Devils River and of
the Devils River itself, which is not close to the land being sold.
Owens also said an article about the land sales and the proposed “smart city” were
published on a local online business website called Del Rio Business. Owens noted the
article said the land being sold is off Highway 163 north of Comstock, but the “pin drop”
on the map on WestLand World’s web site showed the property is actually off Ranch-To-
Market Road 1024, halfway between Pandale and Juno.
Owens said the property there is owned by a company called Greenalia and constitutes
about 89,000 acres.
Owens said, “I don’t understand how you can sell a square meter of land, for whatever
price, and get away without doing subdivision and doing all the other rules. They have
not, as of last week when I looked, have not applied, (and) a development this size, their
wastewater discharge would have to be licensed through the state of Texas. Not so much
through the county because the gallons are higher, per day. As of last week, they’ve not
applied for a permit, when I was looking it up.”
The county judge added, “It’s pretty scary, and I keep looking at you, Ms. Hargrove,
because I agree with you, too. It’s a little bit scary, because who’s going to take care of
this? If this court doesn’t pay attention, it’ll fall through the cracks.
“So, we are all aware of it. We will be asking the state to look into it, and we will
continue to monitor their videos and any type of progress that are on these tracts of land,
whether it’s Sunflower or Greenalia. Those are the two companies, it looks like right
now, that could (be involved), because they reference Sunflower on one deal and pin-
drop on a property where Greenalia’s at,” Owens said.
After Owens fielded some questions from audience members, County Attorney David
Martinez said, “Judge if the court would like to take some action, to order my office to submit a question to the (Texas) Attorney General, for an Attorney General’s opinion,
regarding the real estate issues, mainly, and at least get the state engaged in that way?”
“I think at the bare minimum, Mr. Martinez, that would need to happen,” Owens said,
adding he did not want to “limit” Martinez’s inquiries with a motion.
Martinez replied, “You could just say, basically, submit a request for an opinion, an
attorney general’s opinion, regarding the Sunflower Ranch LLC and WestLand World,
not only the real estate issues, but even perhaps the method in which they are selling and
perhaps misleading, as broad as possible.”
“And WestLand World.com is the one pushing all this. The Sunflower Ranch LLC is
what popped up on Del Rio Business. When we looked up the pin drop, it was not close
to that, it was on property owned by Greenalia, so I think if we stuck with WestLand
World because they’re the ones presenting it, I think that would be a good start,” Owens
said.
“Are you all okay with that?” Owens asked the commissioners.
Wardlaw said he had a question for the county attorney.
“So the illegalities of the land and property ownership that the judge is referring to,
would be the key to make this internet fraud?” Wardlaw asked.
“I don’t know enough to answer that question,” Martinez replied.
“Because if it’s a fraud, then we can . . . get the feds involved,” Wardlaw added.
“I don’t know enough to answer that question, but we can certainly put it on people’s
radar and see where it goes,” Martinez said.
“Well, I’ll make a motion that our county attorneys, our counsel, send a question to our
attorney general at the state, to figure out the legalities of WestLand World,” Owens said.
Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores gave the second.
Assistant County Attorney John Clemmer added, “There’ll be some issues that we may
raise that the AG probably will not take a stance on one way or the other, but we can raise
all of them, and they can tell us.”
Before the vote, Owens said, “We will try to keep track of this and not let it fall through
the cracks. All of us are concerned, at the court level, and I’m sure every (city) council
member is concerned also, just like all the citizens in Val Verde County. We’re all
concerned.”
“We’ll ask those questions, and see what we can do,” Owens added.
The court then unanimously approved Owens’ motion.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
