2,412-acre Saguache County cattle ranch sold for $2.8 million

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 14, 2007 at midnight

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Kyle Grote, a son of the founder of the Donatos Pizza chain, paid $2.8 million for the 2,412-acre Weiss Ranch in Saguache County.

The cattle ranch has been operated by the Weiss family for the past 46 years. It was sold at an auction by J.P. King on Thursday.

Donatos was founded in 1963 in Columbus, Ohio, by Kyle's father, Jim, who sold it to McDonald's in 1999 for a reported $150 million.

He bought it back from McDonald's in 2003 for an estimated $50 million. The family owns 70 percent of the company, which has about $175 million in annual sales, according to trade journals.

Kyle Grote formerly worked for Donatos but later founded a production company in Ohio called Enlightenment Studios. In 2004, the studio received an award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for its "I believe in love" ad campaign.

The studio is not listed in directory assistance, and calls to Donatos and a group the production company worked with in the past were not returned Friday.

Carl Carter of J.P. King said he didn't know what Grote's plans are for the ranch. He said the auction took several hours, and Weiss family members were happy with the sales price.

"When you have 21 bidders competing against each other, you will generally reach a good price," Carter said.

The auction attracted bidders from Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Tennessee and California.

"We had kind of a tug of war going between those who wanted to buy individual parcels and those who were interested in buying the entire ranch," Craig King, president of his namesake auction company, said in a statement.

He said the bidding finally came down to Grote and one other who also wanted the entire ranch.

Alfred, John, Robert and Alvin Weiss sold the ranch.

The ranch includes "generous water rights" and has views of the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo ranges, J.P. King said.

rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5207

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