A bird’s-eye view looking southeast of the Jamestown Community Farm at the corner of Eldred Avenue and East Shore Road. The farm has reached a rent-to-own agreement with the land’s owner, Peter Ceppi, to purchase 15 of these 17 acres so it can stay in operation.
Peter Ceppi, for 18 years without asking for a dime, allowed the Jamestown Community Farm to occupy 17 acres of his land at the corner of Eldred Avenue and East Shore Road.
The appraised value of that borrowed land is $3.3 million.
“He has always been friendly to that farm,” Bob Sutton said. “He has never done anything that was in opposition to any of our ideas. He has always made that land available to us for whatever we wanted to do with it.”
That agreement, however, changed with the new year.
The farm’s 501(c)3 corporation is acquiring 15 acres from Ceppi. Sutton, who founded the farm and serves as the president of its board of directors, broke “the really good news” to the town council at its Feb. 5 meeting.
“The one thing that has not been determined is how much we are paying for it,” he said.
Ceppi, after 18 free seasons, began charging the farm an annual rent of $9,000 in 2019. Under this new agreement, however, an option to buy was added.
The financing, according to Sutton, “is a little bit different than what you normally do.” For 2024, which the farm already has paid, the price was $76,000, including $26,000 for rent with a $50,000 option to buy. The entire option, and half the rent, has been applied to the eventual purchase price. Aside from annual rent changes based on the consumer price index, this payment plan will continue through 2028. Fox Hill Farm during this five-year stretch will be donating $50,000 annually.
“The farm doesn’t wander around with $76,000 in its pocket,” Sutton said. “It was made possible by Fox Hill Farm. They’re paying a good portion of the first five years.”
From 2029-38, along with the annually adjusted rent, the option will increase to $60,000 in the first five years and $70,000 in the second five years. Everything, except half of the rent each year, will be credited against the final cost of acquisition.
The option may be exercised upon Ceppi’s death. Sutton said the farm will have six months to exercise the option, and a closing must take place within a year after that. If Ceppi elects to sell the property before he dies, the same timetable will apply.
If the option is exercised, the final sale price will be determined by a certified appraisal. The farm will hire an appraiser, and if Ceppi does not accept the appraised value, he will get his own appraiser to provide a second appraisal. If the two appraisals differ by less than 10 percent, the selling price will become the average of the two. If the two appraisals differ by more than 10 percent, the two appraisers will select a third appraiser, and the selling price will be the average of the three.
The farm’s attorney, Mark Liberati, has filed a “memorandum of lease” signed by both parties in the land evidence records. This is to provide notice to anyone researching ownership of the parcel that it is encumbered by a lease and option to purchase. Sutton credited his board of directors for their role in the outcome.
“This has certainly been a negotiation that tried everyone’s patience,” he said. “You think you’re getting some place, then it’s one step forward, two steps back. And yet everyone kept their patience. We persisted. We said, ‘We are going to make this happen.’ It was a very positive board that did that. … I think we came to an agreement that was very fair. Everything is in writing. There isn’t any speculation.”
Sutton also credited the local property tax on farmland. The cost of taxes is about $350 annually. If the 15-acre lot was taxed like a residential property, at the $3.3 million appraised value, the cost would be $23,100 per year.
“The town set out to promote farmland,” he said. “And it’s worked. The community farm could not have existed if there wasn’t a very generous property tax.”
Voters in 2022 unanimously approved a $400,000 bond to subsidize the purchase. Sutton said he plans to apply for grants through the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Applying, however, will have to wait until the option is exercised because governmental agencies won’t award money for projects in undetermined fiscal years.
“They have annual budgets like everyone else,” he said.
A fundraiser also has begun to help offset the purchase price. It has been named “One Chance” because the farm considers this to be the “one opportunity we will all have to permanently protect this parcel in the 1,000-acre greenway.”
Starting at Carr Lane and heading south between East Shore and North Main roads, the greenway comprises the reservoir, bike path, community farm, soccer fields, Windmist Farm, Marsh Meadows, Conanicut Island
Sanctuary and golf course.
If this project failed, and Ceppi were to sell his parcel to a developer, the greenway would be compromised, Sutton said.
Although the original plan was to purchase all 17 acres, Ceppi decided to keep two, one-acre lots for his daughter and granddaughter.
“Peter has just been an excellent landlord,” Sutton said. “The farm exists because Peter allowed it to exist. He owns the land and could have done any number of things with it.”