164 acres of farmland go for $1,375,000
By John Tredrea
Bryce Thompson’s trade is buying and selling land, and he did some business in Hopewell Township on Friday, when he purchased 164 acres of farmland from the township for $1,375,000.
"I’m in the land business," said Mr. Thompson, who lives on a farm in East Amwell. "I buy and sell land and have been doing it since 1959, when I bought my first farm in Princeton Township. I still have some of that place. I hold the tracts I buy for an average of 18 years before selling them."
The land Mr. Thompson bought Friday is part of the 251-acre Martin tract, in the east-central section of Hopewell Township between Bayberry and Elm Ridge roads. He made the purchase at a public auction on the Martin tract Friday afternoon.
A condition of the sale is that the land Mr. Thompson bought be used for farming, as it has been for many years. Hay has been raised on the land since it was purchased years ago by the late attorney Edward Martin. Another condition of sale is that no more than one residence may be placed on the land.
Mr. Thompson said he will "continue farming the land (by tenant farmers) and hold it" until the market indicates the time to try to sell it has arrived.
Mr. Thompson’s was the top price offered by the half dozen or so bidders who turned out for the auction, which was attended by about 50 people.
Among them were township Mayor Vanessa Sandom and Township Committee members Judy Niederer and Mark Iorio. Also on hand were representatives of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association; the Delaware and Raritan Greenway, a nonprofit that works to preserve land as open space and farmland; ERANA (the Elm Ridge Park Area Neighborhood Association), a group of residents; and the township’s Open Space and Agricultural Advisory committees. All these organizations participated in the intense debate on what should be done with the Martin tract, purchased by the township several years ago.
In the end, all these groups backed the sort of transaction that took place Friday afternoon.
"I want to thank everyone who made this day possible," Mayor Sandom said before the beginning of the auction, which took about a half-hour and was run by the Max Spann Auction Co. "We’ve come a long way to be where we are today."
Present at the auction was Henry Martin, brother of Edward Martin. "Edward was a Washington, D.C., lawyer who came back here every weekend to farm this land," Henry Martin said. "He worked very hard at and loved doing it. He loved this land. I’m glad it will continue to be a farm. He would have wanted it that way."
The township will retain ownership of the 87 acres of the Martin tract not purchased by Mr. Thompson and preserve them as woodlands.

