Item 2. Properties
ITEM 2. Properties
Following is a description of our 46,000 acres of landholdings in the Eastern Mojave Desert in Southern California.
The Cadiz Ranch Property
We own approximately 35,000 acres of largely contiguous desert land in the Cadiz and Fenner valleys of eastern San Bernardino County, California (the “Cadiz Ranch”). This area is located approximately 80 miles east of Barstow, California and 30 miles north of the Colorado River Aqueduct, and 110 miles north-east of Palm Springs. The Cadiz Ranch, which is at the base of a topographically diverse 2,000 square mile watershed, is the principal location of our business operations, including our agricultural operations and ongoing development of our water supply, storage and conveyance projects.
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Cadiz Inc.
Independent geotechnical and engineering studies conducted since initial acquisition have confirmed that the Cadiz Ranch overlies a significant aquifer system from a watershed with an estimated 30-50 million acre-feet of groundwater that can support agricultural development, the conservation of groundwater for off-property uses the storage of imported water. Approximately 3,100 acres of the Cadiz Ranch are actively farmed by us or leased to third parties for farming activities and includes agriculture and water infrastructure including wells, wellfield manifold, pipelines, worker housing, and energy and transportation facilities (see Item 1. “Business”, above).
Additional Eastern Mojave Properties
Piute: We own approximately 9,000 acres in the Piute Valley. This landholding is located 15 miles from the resort community of Laughlin, Nevada, and about 12 miles from the Colorado River town of Needles, California. Extensive hydrological studies, including the drilling and testing of a full-scale production well, have demonstrated that this landholding is underlain by high-quality groundwater and could be suitable for agricultural development or solar energy production. The Piute Valley properties include private inholdings in the Mojave Trails National Monument and are proximate to or border areas designated by the state and federal government as the Mojave National Preserve, Critical Desert Tortoise Habitat and/or Desert Wilderness Areas and are therefore ideally suited for preservation and conservation. Approximately 7,400 acres of our Piute Valley properties are reserved in our Fenner Valley Desert Tortoise Conservation Bank, which is the largest land bank in California dedicated to protecting the desert tortoise. The Fenner Valley Desert Tortoise Conservation Bank offers credits that can be acquired by public and private entities required to mitigate or offset impacts to the desert tortoise linked to planned development. We are presently marketing these credits to a variety of planned developments in the region.
Danby : We own nearly 2,000 acres near Danby Dry Lake in Ward Valley, approximately 30 miles southeast of the Cadiz Ranch. Our Danby Dry Lake property is located approximately 10 miles north of the Colorado River Aqueduct. Initial hydrological studies indicate that it has excellent potential for a water supply project. Certain of the properties in this area may also be suitable for agricultural development, renewable energy and/or preservation and conservation lands. The Danby properties are currently managed for open space purposes.
Executive Offices
We lease approximately 4,500 square feet of office space in Los Angeles, California for our executive offices (“Executive Office Lease”). The Executive Office Lease terminates in May 2030. The current base rent under the Executive Office Lease is approximately $10,000 per month. We lease a total of approximately 44,500 square feet of industrial space under two leases in Hollister, California for our water filtration technology operations (“Hollister Leases”). The Hollister Leases terminate in October 2028 and May 2029. The current base rent under the Hollister Leases is approximately $35,500 per month.
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Cadiz Real Estate
Title to substantially all of our real estate assets is held by Cadiz Real Estate LLC (“Cadiz Real Estate”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cadiz Inc. The Board of Managers of Cadiz Real Estate currently consists of two managers appointed by the Company’s Board of Directors. As the ownership of the real estate held by Cadiz Real Estate has no effect on our ultimate beneficial ownership of these assets, we refer throughout this Report to assets owned of record either by Cadiz Real Estate or by us as “our” properties.
Cadiz Real Estate is a co-obligor under our senior secured term loan, for which assets of Cadiz Real Estate have been pledged as security.
Debt Secured by Properties
Our assets have been pledged as collateral for $63.3 million of senior secured debt outstanding as of December 31, 2025.