Albert, Texas, Sold to Italian Bidder

Over the week-end the town of Albert, Texas, was sold to a bidder from Italy. This isn’t the first time that a town has been sold on eBay. Bridgeville, California, gets that honor. While there are no contractual obligations really, the one-house town on 13 acres has been “sold” for $3.8 million. One wonders if it was included in the Black Friday sales figures.

According to the Associated Press, “No one lives permanently in the 13-acre town of Albert, about 60 miles north of San Antonio, but its tavern is open on weekends. The town also has a pavilion, a dance hall, a tractor shed, a three-bedroom house, and peach and pecan orchards.” The schoolhouse is one which Lyndon Baines Johnson attended before becoming president.

Bobby Cave, a 47-year-old realtor in Austin, Texas (a slightly bigger burg) had a reserve price of $2.5 million on the property. He hasn’t counted the unhatched chickens yet, though, “There's just not any way to insist that a guy from Italy write me a check for three million.”

Not that he’s worried about being stuck with the place. He claims there are five other prospective buyers. And why not? Mr. Cave says, “I bought it with the intention of creating a little family camping venue where people could come out and drink and enjoy local live music.”

However, there seems to be two snags. If the buyer in Italy is legitimate, just who is going to build the pizzeria? And will the town have to change it name to something more Tuscan, like San Alberto di Texas?

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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