Got $6 million lying around? If so, you could own the Leabo Farm, a 150-acre piece of agricultural property located just outside of Suttons Bay and known best for its 12 acres of sunflower fields. After more than half a century of family ownership, the farm has officially hit the market. It’s the latest sizable piece of agricultural property to go up for sale in Leelanau County.

The Leabo Farm has been under the ownership of single family for more than 60 years, ever since Peter and Josephine Leabo bought it from the Oleson family in 1962. Josephine passed away in 2015, and Peter died in 2020, but their five children have kept the farm running as a family operation.

The Leabo family flirted with multiple agricultural avenues over the years, from cattle in the early days to cherries later on. These days, the farm – which sits along M-204/Duck Lake Road in Suttons Bay Township – primarily focuses on U-pick sunflowers, which bloom from July all the way through September. One of the Leabo siblings, also named Peter, even bears the nickname “Sunflower Pete.”

News of the farm going up for sale doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise. More than a year ago, the Leabo siblings announced on the farm’s Facebook page that they had “made a family decision to put the farm on the open market.”

Despite that announcement, it wasn’t until earlier this month that Leabo Farm actually hit the market. The real estate listing touts the farm’s 149.8 acres as a once-in-a-lifetime “development property” that has “unlimited potential due to its size, location, and spectacular water views.”

“About two-thirds of the property has views of Grand Traverse Bay while the highest elevations include vistas of Lake Leelanau, Lake Michigan, the Manitou Islands and Pyramid Point,” the listing states. 

Also included in the $5,725,000 asking price are a four-bedroom/one-bathroom 1,783-square-foot farmhouse with an attached garage, two historic wood barns that date back to the early 1900s, and additional outbuildings, including a metal pole barn, a shed, and a detached garage.

Realtor Brian McGillivary of Berkshire Hathaway, who is representing the property, also highlighted development opportunities in a video ad for the land.

“This property has few limits on what it can become: a country estate where you can raise horses, have orchards or vineyards, have your own winery; there’s plenty of space,” McGillivary said. “And what a location it’d be for a high-end camping or glamping experience, just minutes from town and Sleeping Bear. The property can also be developed for up to 74 homesites in a variety of configurations, all possible under current zoning.”

“Or, you can keep it mostly the way it is, as the local conservancy has a strong interest in purchasing the development rights of some or all of the property,” McGillivary added.

That’s a reference to the Leelanau Conservancy which, according to its website, “has protected 93 farms and nearly 5,700 acres of farmland” in Leelanau County “through a mechanism called purchase of development rights or a conservation easement.” Those tools enable the conservancy to pay farmers “the difference between what their land is worth as farmland versus what it is worth as residential land.” Farmers can then continue to own and farm their property, but the easement restricts the land from ever being developed.

Explaining the process to the Leelanau Ticker last year, Executive Director Tom Nelson said the conservancy was “fielding calls from lots of farm families about partnering to conserve their land for local food and farming and protecting clean water.” So far, protected farms in Leelanau County include the Shimek Farm in Kasson Township, the Stanek Farm in Elmwood Township, and the Newton Farm in Leelanau Township.

Nelson declined to comment on discussions the conservancy has had with the sellers of the Leabo property, but reiterated that the organization talks “to many landowners about their interest in conservation,” and always “encourages landowners, including buyers and sellers, to consider the advantages to the community and themselves in conserving their land.”

Mary Leabo-McManemy also declined to comment for this story, saying she and her siblings have “decided not to talk to reporters at this time.”

“It is a beautiful, special piece of land to us,” Leabo-McManemy adds, promising that “a lot of thought went into the decision to sell.”

The Leabo Farm isn’t the only large Leelanau farm property to go up for sale lately. A perusal of the real estate site LandSearch yields 14 agricultural properties on the market throughout the county, from a 10-acre property going for $300,000 in Empire to 85 acres of cherry orchards in Northport for $2.5 million. Other examples include the previously-reported listings of two wineries: Ciccone Vineyard and Shady Lane Cellars.

Speaking to the Leelanau Ticker earlier this year, Glen Chown, executive director for the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, pointed to local farmland as the next big target for developers, due to both the desirability of the land itself and the fact that many farmers are aging out of the profession.

“All the shoreline in our area is developed or already protected, so the next frontier is the ridges that have those sweeping views, and that’s where the highest quality farmland is,” Chown said. “We feel an incredible sense of urgency to continue with farmland protection, because pavement is the last crop. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”