Money flows from Staten Island to Sierra County to buy property with help from tax deferments 

Photographs by Tom Sharpe

Staten Island speculators are trading New York properties for a wide variety of real estate in Sierra County — its biggest land deal since Ted Turner bought two large ranches in 1992 and Spaceport America got rolling in 2005.

PreReal Investments’s buys, all but one for cash, include the county’s only private golf resort, its largest restaurant, its only strip mall, two motels, a service station, three commercial buildings on Broadway in downtown Truth or Consequences, more than 40 residences (from mobile homes to modern ranch styles) and more than 400 undeveloped residential lots. 

From malls to motels to mobile homes, PreReal Investments has been acquiring Sierra County properties.

PreReal says it is spending $42 million to buy properties, rehabilitate them and lease them so they become a working part of its inventory. You may have noticed its hired crews working around Williamsburg, Truth or Consequences and Elephant Butte — some of the first rehabilitation projects to get under way since the pandemic downturn left many buildings vacant and deteriorating.

Some of that money will be financed through the Trump administration’s first major tax cut — creating “opportunity zones,” described as like the old “enterprise zones on steroids.” Investors in these designated poor areas can defer, reduce or eliminate capital-gains taxes incurred by sales elsewhere. The Sierra County project apparently is one of only two successful OZ ventures in New Mexico.

Placing a $42 million bet that Sierra County properties are undervalued but ultimately desirable are PreReal’s principals: frontman and real estate broker James Prendamano (left) and entrepreneur and primary investor David Berman. Photograph credits: prerealinvestments.com

The principal investor in the new project, David Berman, said through a spokesperson that he bought his first property here in 2005 after hearing about the proposed Spaceport. Years later, he joined with Staten Island real estate broker James Prendamano to form PreReal Investments and began buying properties in Sierra County with money from the sales of properties in Staten Island. 

“This has been like an exodus, I guess, for us, in a way,” Berman said in a December Zoom interview in which Prendamano also participated. “We’ve been selling stuff that we’ve been accumulating in New York over literally a lifetime — of 30 years of work.”

PreReal is betting that real estate is undervalued here and will rise as online workers leave cities for more tranquil places with outdoor recreation opportunities and healthier lifestyles — the so-called decentralization movement. Berman and Prendamano say they want to relocate here, too.  

“We visited quite a few places across the country,” Prendamano told the Sierra County Commission on Jan. 23. “It was clear to us that back east was not fit for us anymore. You work your whole life and you wake up one day and it just doesn’t feel like home anymore.” 

The pitch is not just to get more people to move here; it also aims to win new investors. PreReal’s website has few specifics on the investment plan, but Prendamano said in one of his videos on Instagram that he is seeking ways to customize investments by “tranches” — raw land for a risky, long-term but potentially big payoff, or residential properties for a modest but safe, steady return.  
Prendamano and Berman say they try to avoid competing with local businesses. For instance, they have not purchased any bathhouses. They say they want a resurgence in tourism, but realize some motels, bathhouses and single-family residences meant for short-term rentals became long-term during the pandemic, and changing back means we need more multifamily housing. They also realize the area will need affordable housing for essential workers as it grows, so they have aimed not at building so many luxury homes, but on rehabilitating many that previously were deteriorating and uninhabitable. 

“We’re not looking to take food off of anybody’s plate. We’re not looking to step on toes,” Berman said. “We don’t want to make anybody think that we’re here to take away their way of life or their living. We’re not looking to change anything. We’re just looking to kind of augment what’s there and make it better.”  

This gasoline station in Williamsburg, near the almost-completed new entrance to I-25, was acquired partly to allow better access to the Rio Grande Motel, another PreReal property, which is located behind the station. Not wanting to step on any toes, PreReal is leasing the gas station to the wife of local fuel jobber Randy Ashbaugh, who opened it as an Arco.

Coffee chatter: ‘mobsters from New York’

I first heard about PreReal’s project last year from Bruce Swingle after he left as Truth or Consequences city manager to go to work for PreReal, and he began speaking to selected groups about the project. I looked up in the County Assessor’s online records a property Swingle said was one of the first PreReal purchased. When the system identified the owner/taxpayer as Integrated Environmental Services, I did a doubletake. It sounded more like a recycling company or a waste dump than a land-holding firm. I searched the name and hit upon a toxic waste mitigation firm in Atlanta with projects around the country — hazardous chemicals, compressed gases, radiological wastes and warfare agents.

Thinking I had stumbled onto a scheme to slip a toxic waste dump into Sierra County, I contacted Berman and Prendamano’s press agent and spelled out my concerns about Integrated Environmental Services. In a Zoom interview, they immediately disabused me of the idea they were connected to the Georgia firm by pointing out it was formed in 1991 and carries an “Inc.” in its title, while the one Berman formed in New York in 2020 to hold property in New Mexico ends in QOZ02 LLC — abbreviations for qualified opportunity zone; Sierra County’s second such zone; and limited liability company. Both firms are registered to do business in New Mexico via the Secretary of State corporations division. 

Prendamano said in the interview that the name emphasizes PreReal’s environmental bonafides — common for development projects. “There’s no connection to landfills or environmental mitigation or anything along those lines,” he said, “Over the years, it’s been always our practice to weave in environmentally sound practices in just about everything we’ve ever done. So the name, I guess, in hindsight, can feel misleading, but it’s about integrating environmental components that we’ve done over the years into development projects.”

I told them the name of their land-holding company might have stirred rumors floating around about New Yorkers with lots of cash. Berman said he had heard them, too: “I was actually getting a cup of coffee (in Truth or Consequences) and I heard people talking. I didn’t mention I had anything to do with the ‘mobsters from New York,’ which is what they said, so I can easily see where you could get that impression. I hope looking at us and listening to us, you will quickly realize we’re just about as far from that as you could get.”

Berman said Integrated Environmental Services is one of first of many companies he created to hold Sierra County properties. Some are named with the addresses of properties in Staten Island that he has sold, so the deferred capital-gains tax on the New York property is linked to the property in New Mexico.   

The news that no waste dump was in the offing was a relief. But the realization I was so far off track was unsettling. I apologized to Prendamano and Berman for doubting them and asked if we could talk again later. Berman suggested we pick up our interview again in January when he would be in the area and we could meet in person and tour the area so he could see it through my eyes. I agreed. But something about the name Integrated Environmental Services kept eating at me. What services?

A few days later, I typed “David Berman” and “Staten Island” into a search, scrolled past the self-promotional stuff and found out he is the owner of Staten Island’s largest commercial waste disposal firm, Gaeta Green Environmental Services. The firm’s website shows a fleet of green trucks and large plastic garbage bins with a leafy logo. A related company specializes in interior demolition. Note that the name of the main firm uses the same two words as does the land-holding firm — environmental services.

Soft pedaling his waste-disposal firm

Berman, 57, hadn’t mentioned his garbage business in the Zoom interview, nor had I asked. His biography on the PreReal website says he began working in real estate in Washington, D.C, after graduating from college, then returned to his hometown of New York to join his father in a business building homes. According to a Dunn & Bradstreet website, Berman is an officer in a half dozen corporations, involving engineering and construction (Kracken Corp.), building supplies (Met Sales and Installation Corp.) and scientific research (Affectiva). “As his appetite for calculated risks burgeoned, Dave expanded his portfolio diversity, encompassing ventures from a small airport to spearheading a luxury charter yacht business,” says PreReal’s website. But it says nothing about a waste disposal firm.

Since Prendamano and Berman had mentioned their environmental responsibility, I called several Staten Island environmental groups to ask if they had heard of them. Nobody had, neither as a contributor or supporter, nor as a polluter or opponent. But when I mentioned Gaeta Green Environmental Services, one environmentalist laughed. Anthony Gaeta, he said, is legend in Staten Island environmental lore. He and his family members owned a garbage company called Gaeta Recycling. While he was Staten Island Borough president,1977-84, the Fish Kills Landfill, originally opened in 1948, became New York City’s only landfill. Before it closed in 2001, it was 2,300 acres — so big it could be seen from space and labeled as the world’s largest manmade “structure.” Rehabilitation began in 2008. Today it is a grassy recreation area called Fresh Kills Park. The jury is still out on its environmental stability. Kills, by the way, is a Dutch word for waterway.

Not that Berman is responsible for any of this. He said through a spokesperson that he bought the company from a Gaeta, but doesn’t think it was Anthony, who died in 2017, and that he doesn’t own Gaeta Recycling in nearby Patterson, N.J. Prendamano, who said Berman added the word “green” to the name when he took over the firm, said he knows several Gaetas in Staten Island, but never heard of Anthony. None of the environmentalists I spoke to knew of any problems with Gaeta Green Environmental Services under Berman’s management. 

Prendamano, 48, also got into real estate through his family. His mother, Casandra Zappala, founded Casandra Properties in Staten Island in 1989 when few women sold commercial real estate. In a 2018 article in The Real Deal, NYC real estate forum, Prendamano said he had been interested in his mother’s business as a child. Other kids’ parents were doctors and lawyers, but “My mom, she was the lady that people trusted to sell their homes and their businesses and their properties,” he said. After graduating from college, he joined her, working on organization and logistics, while she focused on sales and the “creative side of the business.” He eventually changed the firm’s name to Prendamano Real Estate, then PreReal Prendamano Real Estate. 

By 2022, the New York business press was lauding Prendamano for handling the sale of a 160,000-square-foot open-air Staten Island retail center called the South Shore Commons. The Real Deal reported Prendamano helped David Berman and his father Murray buy the complex in 2018 for $41 million, add a children’s play area and a parents’ lounge and attract more upscale shops, then sell it four years later. This time, according to the online magazine silive.com, the asking price was $60 million, though the sale price was not disclosed. Prendamano said the final price was “much less.” PreReal’s press agent said the capital gains from this transaction were not used to subsidize the Sierra County venture.

Prendamano is the frontman for PreReal Investments in Sierra County, appearing before government bodies and in videos posted on social media. The videos show him walking through the Albuquerque Sunport, outdoors with scenic vistas in the background or sitting at a computer, talking about why one should move to the area or invest in the project. He often warns to beware of rumors or memories of past Sierra County land deals that went south, and urges would-be investors to rely on his company’s expertise and to “be smart.”

I got off on the wrong foot with Prendamano in my Zoom interview by joking that finding Integrated Environmental Services in the county records was like something out of The Sopranos. He said at the time he thought that was “inappropriate.” After his presentation to the county commission, I brought the subject up again, telling him that anyone familiar with the HBO series, which premiered 25 years ago, about a mobster whose cover was as a waste management consultant, would have thought the same, including himself. He responded like this: “What we’re doing is productive and it’s from a good place and it’s honest and it very much felt that you had your mind made up coming in that this was a nefarious kind of thing. You can’t understand because you didn’t live my life, but I did, and growing up in New York with the last name of Prendamano, being in Staten Island, every board room I ever went in, every presentation I ever made, every position I ever applied for, it was I’m the dumb guinea from the mafia from Staten Island, and I take it very personally because I’m as clean as a whistle.”

One of very few OZ ventures surviving in NM 

PreReal touts its ability to use cash, not borrowed money. Prendamano told the commission there might be a time to borrow money in the future, but for now, “We wanted to do this with no debt over our heads. When you undertake big projects and you have debt, there’s a way of debt driving your decisions — not what’s right.” He said the only exception was where a seller insisted on holding a note on the sale.

PreReal has so much cash, in part, because the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 defers, discounts or eliminates capital-gains taxes for those investing in an economically disadvantaged area designated as an opportunity zone or OZ. The act briefly had bipartisan support, but after then-President Donald Trump signed it into law, Democrats charged it ignored the interests of the broader community and benefitted mainly wealthy urban-property speculators — like Trump himself. The average OZ investor makes $4.9 million a year, according to the Urban Institute. Republican proponents of the law counter that it has helped keep residential real estate prices stable during a period of high interest rates. An article in Forbes last year said investments in an OZ spill over to surrounding areas, increasing the housing supply and property values, without increasing rents or causing gentrification.

New Mexico has 63 “opportunity zones” — 59 that meet the criteria for being economically disadvantaged and four others (including the center portion of Truth or Consequences) that do not meet the criteria but which qualify because their borders are contiguous with areas that do. This means the entire east side of Sierra County qualifies as an OZ but the west, including Hillsboro and Arrey, does not. Source: New Mexico Economic Development Department

There are 8,764 OZs in the country. Former Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, got to choose New Mexico’s 63 — rural areas south of Farmington, from the Colorado border south to near Española, east of Raton, east and west of Albuquerque and in its South Valley, around Gallup and Grants, south of Roswell and Carlsbad, west of Las Cruces and all of Sierra County east of I-25. New Mexico has 59 OZs that meet the poverty criteria plus four others too wealthy to meet it, but have borders contiguous to OZs, so they are included. The central portion of Truth or Consequences is too wealthy to meet the criteria, but it is surrounded by areas that do, so all of Sierra County east of I-25 qualifies. This brings up another criticism of the system — that it mainly benefits the wealthier parts of poor areas.

The system works like this: Investors pay their capital-gains taxes into a qualified OZ fund. They use that money to buy properties, repair them, build new structures, start businesses and pay other expenses. When the program ends, Dec. 31, 2026, they must replace the funds spent. This amounts to essentially a multiyear interest-free loan — not bad in this time of high interest rates. But the real bonanza — leading to the steroids analogy — comes when properties are held for five to 10 years. Investors holding properties for five years get their capital-gains taxes reduced by increasing their tax basis (what it was purchased for plus improvements) by 10 percent. Those holding them seven years get their basis increased 15 percent. Those holding them 10 years, until the program sunsets at the end of 2026, get their entire capital-gains tax bill eliminated. Because few if any of PreReal’s properties will be held five years by then, it does not appear to be eligible for discounts or elimination. My questions about this were not answered by PreReal’s press agent. Some expect Congress will try to change the OZ program over the next three years, so that the eligibility deadline is extended and PreReal could qualify for the juiciest of the tax breaks.

Nationwide, OZ investments grew rapidly through 2022, then growth dropped off sharply in 2023, according to a private group called Novogradac. It says 1,461 QOZ (qualified opportunity zone) funds totaling $37.62 billion have been created, but doesn’t say how many resulted in successful ventures on its website. Novogradac predicts the rising stock market and the prospect of lower interest rates bode well for OZs. “The prospect of bipartisan OZ legislation at some point either this year or next may also provide a tailwind for additional QOZ fundraising growth in the future,” it says.  

No government agency has a handle on how the OZ program is faring. U.S. Treasury and the Housing and Urban Development have websites with basic information from 2017, but no up-to-date reports. The Internal Revenue Service is in charge of the program, but according to an article last year on the Urban Institute site, “Unlike other federal programs, the data collected are too limited to adequately understand the program, and because data are collected via the tax form, there are legal constraints on sharing them publicly.” New Mexico Economic Development Department employees who tracked the OZ system early on have moved on to other jobs. Current EDD employees in Santa Fe and Las Cruces told me they think the OZ system has “fizzled” in New Mexico, but that they’d like to know more. None had heard of PreReal’s project or any other successful ventures in New Mexico.

A website for OpportunityDb — a private data base group selling expertise about the OZ system — says there are four OZ funds with target markets in New Mexico, but its “complete list” shows only two: 828 Studios OZ Fund and Clearinghouse CDFI Opportunity Fund. An active link for the studio said the $75 million fund aims to construct 100,000 square feet of buildings, including sound stages, offices and post-production facilities for $50 million, and spend another $125 million to finance films. Someone familiar with the project, who did not want to be identified, told me the first building of the complex, on the site of a former nuclear bomb assembly plant on Woodward Street in Albuquerque’s South Valley, is complete, awaiting a city occupancy permit and already leased to a film crew. 

Clearinghouse CDFI, on the other hand, is a mystery. Its link malfunctions, so no detailed information is available, but the initial listing on OpportunityDb says it is a $25 million fund for real estate — similar to PreReal’s project, although PreReal’s press agent never answered my question about the size of its OZ fund. She would only say that Clearinghouse CDFI “is not” PreReal. EDD staffers say CDFI stands for Community Development Financial Institution — a type of nonprofit bank that finances community projects and has been known to use its name as a placeholder on applications, even though other entities are behind the proposal. OpportunityDb founder and CEO Jimmy Atkinson said in an email that Clearinghouse CDFI’s website no longer functions, so he assumes it is no longer operating, but he is not sure. “Frankly, I don’t have a great handle on what’s happening in New Mexico,” he wrote.

Little media scrutiny of PreReal up to now

Up until now, PreReal Investments has virtually made its own media — on its own website, on Facebook and Instagram, with features about things to do in Sierra County, sightseeing suggestions, outdoor recreation opportunities, local events, businesses, art galleries, restaurants and local characters. It may be the best promotion for the area since the state Tourism Department’s “New Mexico True” campaign featuring pretty girls relaxing in riverside thermal pools and getting massages.

Sierra County Sentinel staff writer Chuck Wentworth unintentionally had the first scoop on the project on Aug. 25, 2023, in a Page A-4 piece about an Elephant Butte City Council hearing on a zoning ordinance. Prendamano, identified in a photograph as a “local developer,” told the council the ordinance would benefit his development. The next news came in the Sept. 1 edition on Page A-6 with PreReal’s New York press agent Jamie Dickerman’s release about launching PreReal Investments. Next, on Sept. 15 on Page A-2, was a release from Albuquerque press agent Joanie Griffin of Sunny505, announcing PreReal had bought the Sierra del Rio golf course and clubhouse. In both these cases, the Sentinel printed the news releases verbatim with the agents’ names used as bylines as if they were staff writers. Given the project’s size and its potential effect on the area, it seems odd the Sentinel has yet to put it on its front page.

On Dec. 15, the New York Times mentioned the PreReal project in the 47th paragraph of a front-page article about Spaceport America’s anchor tenant, Virgin Galactic, laying off staff and cutting back its recreational flights into space. Many locals, like Citizen correspondent Kathleen Sloan, told the Times they were tired of waiting for new aerospace jobs and space-oriented tourism. But Prendamano said his project would continue unabated because it is focused on natural resources — not the Spaceport. He did not mention that Berman originally was attracted to the area because of the Spaceport.

By early January, I realized Berman would ghost me for asking about his garbage business. His PR person Joanie Griffin said he was ill and/or traveling. I searched online records, visited PreReal’s newly acquired properties, talked to tenants, workmen and neighbors, put together a first draft of this story and sent it to Griffin on Jan. 22. Daily newspapers, where I used to work, generally forbid letting a source read a draft due to time and/or legal constraints. But now that I’m retired and no longer facing daily deadlines, I find it a way to make a good story better. I told Griffin I needed to hear back by Jan. 24 and that I would correct errors of fact, but not opinions. She responded that the draft “borders on defamation,” is “an opinion piece and it is painted totally incorrectly” and “I just want to remind you that we recorded the zoom interview.” She said her clients needed until the end of the week (Jan. 26) to respond because they were “under the weather” and traveling. I agreed to wait. Then, the next day, Jan. 23, Prendamano showed up at the county commission meeting to give the most extensive public report to date on PreReal’s activities. He didn’t look ill. 

Later that day, Griffin sent me her corrections. There were a few real corrections — about the number of empty lots purchased and details about the tax deferments, for instance. But mostly she objected to my tone, context and news judgment. She said I had misquoted her clients, but would not say how. She was incensed that I was reporting Berman owned a garbage business and had other interests in New York because this, she said, was unrelated to the New Mexico project. She became increasingly threatening. She said I implied her clients were involved in illegal activities or an illicit tax scheme by reporting that most of their buys were for cash — something Prendamano brags about in his sales pitch.

Then, Griffin, a former Phoenix TV reporter, insisted everything she had said to me for more than two months was off the record and on background. She said “journalism 101” should have taught me not to quote PR agents. She also tried asking please, saying she was just “the PR girl.” I told her no. I rarely agree to go off the record and only to avoid jeopardizing a source of important information. Besides, this agreement has to be made in advance, not later as a way of backtracking. I have worked PR jobs, too, and I always expected to be quoted by name, especially if my clients were not available. Griffin seldom answered my questions, and instead sent information I already had. She belittled my sources and suggested others that turned out to be dead ends. I quit trying to communicate with her Feb. 8 after she emailed that she was having difficulty getting an Internet connection and was “five hours ahead of you” in Antarctica. “I’m at the bottom of the earth literally,” she wrote. 

Griffin, of course, is only doing what her clients want. They are stonewalling me because they think I want to sabotage their plan. Let me say clearly that I believe Prendamano and Berman are astute businessmen trying to thread the needle on a complicated deal, using experienced lawyers and accountants. I doubt they are breaking laws on taxes or anything else — and I looked for infractions. People who have dealt with them told me they liked them, the way they do business and what they’re doing. I got a few complaints about higher-than-expected rents and new traffic on previously seldom-used roads. But they are bringing money into Sierra County. If this is one of the few OZ projects to make it in New Mexico, so be it. If it’s to our advantage to extend the deadline for cashing in on the full tax incentives so PreReal can continue or expand its project, let’s support it. Let’s also remain vigilant.

I see no indication PreReal plans a waste dump or other polluting industry via their current project or a subsequent one. That would jeopardize the real-estate project by alienating those PreReal hopes to attract and those already here. Berman’s reluctance to mention his commercial garbage company in Staten Island may be strictly a matter of “optics” — not wanting to mix up in the public mind an industry once linked to organized crime and extreme pollution with his more genteel New Mexico venture. There is no law against trying to mislead a reporter. But if he can run an environmentally responsible, aboveboard, well-regulated garbage operation in Staten Island, I’d like to hear how. I would gladly go off the record for that one. Maybe he has advice for Sierra County, where all trash goes to transfer stations in Williamsburg, Hillsboro and Arrey, then is hauled to a landfill in Doña Ana County. How long will that go on?

If I have a problem with PreReal’s sales pitch, it’s its wince-worthy claim that their project will give the area what it needs to keep our offspring from leaving to find jobs, entertainment and intellectual stimulation in more exciting cities. I’ve heard this before. An influx of new people changes a town. They tend to love it to death. PreReal brings a new game to Sierra County with sophisticated marketing, “staging” properties for sale or rent, and digitally reaching would-be buyers around the world. Get ready for changes.

I don’t believe Integrated Environmental Services is a common name for real estate ventures “in our world,” as Prendamano says. But if bending the truth in naming a company were against the law, we would have a lot of white-collar guys in jail. Maybe the name is just a fluke because Berman was absent-mindedly thinking about his Staten Island garbage firm when he had to choose a name for his New Mexico land project. If he had chosen, say, “Sunny Acres,” I never would have looked twice.

A partial list of PreReal’s properties so far

PreReal’s crown jewel is the 1,043-acre Turtleback Mountain Resort with its Rio del Sierra 18-hole golf course, 580 acre-feet of water rights for irrigation, a large clubhouse with a pro shop, a bar with a full liquor license and a restaurant called the Turtleback Tap House & Grill with the largest patio for miles around and a spectacular view of Turtleback Mountain. PreReal’s first big project since buying the property from the city of Elephant Butte last year for a reported $1.3 million has been rebuilding its patio with a rain-proof roof, lights and fans, and adding new bathrooms. The golf course’s bunkers also have been restored, some fairways and greens reseeded and its fleet of golf carts replaced. 

The property, within the city limits of Elephant Butte where it gets its drinking water, has 208 ready-to-build homesites, ranging from 7,000 square feet to 2.5 acres, with sewers, roads and utilities in place. Some of the undeveloped residential lots were purchased from the estate of Gerald Falls, who began to develop the site decades ago. The area is permitted for 1,641 residential units. Dozens of lavish houses have been completed, ranging in price from $350,000 to $1,500,000. Many are second homes and unoccupied much of the time. 

(Left) The largest mansion in the Turtleback Mountain Resort development, the crown jewel of PreReal’s Sierra County holdings. Dozens of new homes are currently under construction, and more than 200 residential lots remain for sale, all with paved roads, utilities and easy access to the resort’s amenities.

Future plans for Turtleback Mountain Resort call for a 400-room hotel and other tourism amenities, including a recreation center, a driving range, two swimming pools, tennis and pickle ball courts, plus expanding the clubhouse and restaurant. PreReal is working on four new home models — all smaller than the “McMansions” that once were popular with second-home owners.

The resort is listed for taxes as RCCD Holdings LLC, one of PreReal’s companies. The County Assessor values the land at $1,008,150 and the improvements at $1,311,075, for a total value of $2,319,225. The property’s estimated tax bill in 2023 was $21,326.05.

According to the Assessor, PreReal Investment’s website, Prendamano’s Jan. 23 presentation, other sources and my own observations, other PreReal properties for lease or sale, being rehabilitated or waiting to be, include: 

The Lakeway Shopping Center used to have a Furrs grocery and then a Bealls clothing store in its largest space, but those and other retail shops have left in recent years. Dollar General was the latest to leave. PreReal has already spent about a million on fixing the roof and repainting the building. Photograph credit: prerealinvestments.com

— Lakeway Shopping Center, 1900 N, Date Street, with an entrance/exit at the southernmost of the three new roundabouts. Truth or Consequences’ only strip mall has 77,000 square feet in 10 spaces on 7.9 acres with 279 parking spaces, with enough room to build a new drive-in restaurant. The U.S. Forest Service leases the south end of the complex. The north end has a loan and tax-preparation office, a cell-telephone firm, a cannabis store, a pipe/vape shop and a Subway restaurant. The entire building has been repainted and reroofed, and PreReal is seeking new tenants for the empty spaces in the middle. Sierra County Assessor records say the owner is Van Street Realty Association, with Berman’s office address in Staten Island, and is valued for taxes at $1,922,547.

Elephant Butte Inn was one of PreReal’s last major purchases — what the company hopes will help bring back hospitality to the area. The 52-year-old motel with a spectacular view of Elephant Butte Reservoir has been closed for three years, but work is underway to reopen it.

— Elephant Butte Inn, 401 Hwy. 195 in Elephant Butte. The two-story, 45-room, 1972-vintage motel with a spa, restaurant and a view of Elephant Butte Reservoir has been closed since 2021, when its rooms went for about $100 a night. It has undergone rehabilitation recently with plans to reopen — a key part of what PreReal hopes to be a revival of the area’s tourism industry. The owner is listed as BBRA LLC and the property is valued for tax purposes at $1,514,967. 

— Rio Grande Motel, 720 S. Broadway, Williamsburg. The 30-unit motel on 2.2 acres at the corner of Broadway and U.S. 187, near the new entrance/exit of I-25, has been converted into 45 units. In the past, its rooms often were rented for a month at a time, at about $600. Part of it remains occupied while AGNS Construction of Elephant Butte continues work on other parts. The owner is listed as Desert Vista QOZBLLC with a total valuation of $719,673.

— Arco station, 704 S. Broadway, Williamsburg. This acquisition allows a new entrance from Broadway to the Rio Grande Motel, other than from U.S. 187. PreReal says this is an example of their intention not to compete with existing businesses. Berman said that when Randy Ashbaugh suggested they were horning in on his nearby Conoco and Marathon stations, PreReal agreed to lease the station to his wife Karen Ashbaugh. The property is valued for taxes at $316,881 and the owner listed as Great Kills Realty LLC.

— 618 S. Broadway is labeled on PreReal’s website as being in Truth or Consequences, but it is actually in Williamsburg. The website does not say how large the building or lot is. The building was previously used for a restaurant called the Dusty Cowboy and although it has been vacant for years, it “is turnkey and ready for business, so you can start earning income from day one,” says the website. The property, owned by Desert Vista QOZBLLC is valued at $86,227.

Broadway Florist used to operate out of this building until a fire swept through it. It’s one of three commercial spaces in the heart of the downtown business district acquired for the Pre-Real Investment project. Rehabilitation has yet to begin on two of them — the former flower shop and La Onda. 

— 531 N. Broadway. The building at the northeast corner of Broadway and Clancy, just across Clancy from the Charles Motel & Spa, was used as a florist shop until a fire burned the interior about five years ago. The vacant, damaged building and land are valued at $22,863 for taxes. (OZ funds can be used to buy a building vacant for at least five years with no requirement to rehabilitate it. A low-investment business on the property, such as leasing it for storage, would allow the owner to sell the building 10 years later tax-free.)

La Onda was a Mexican-style paleteria for several years. But like much of Truth or Consequences, it closed down during the pandemic.

— 103 N. Broadway. A one-story building near the curve where Broadway becomes Date Street is vacant now, but a couple of years earlier it was used as an ice cream shop or paleteria known as La Onda. The building and land are valued at $83,640. The east exterior wall of the building was recently replastered and the sheetrock has been removed on the interior in preparation for further rehabilitation.

This one-story building was one of the first acquired and rehabilitated by the PreReal Investments project. The front space is vacant but the two in back have been used by the Geronimo Trail Visitor Center since moving from its former space in the Lee Belle Johnson building. PreReal is waving rent for the first six months, November through April.

— 521 N. Broadway. A long low building with three separate spaces is just across a parking lot from the Bank of the Southwest. The retail space facing Broadway is vacant. The two office spaces in the rear currently are used by the Geronimo Trail National Scenic Byway Visitor Center. Gina Kelley, executive director of the center, said PreReal is waiving rent for first six months, ending after April, and after that, the center could continue there by beginning to pay rent on the building. Truth or Consequences municipal government has already appropriated $13,000 for the lease. The building and land are valued at $182,340.

PreReal’s first buys in the Hot Springs District in Truth or Consequences were three modest residences on Van Patten. A freshly painting mobile home at 626 Van Patten is already for sale with an asking price of $179,000. The other two are frame houses that have undergone extensive rehabilitation and are leased.

— Three modest residences on one block of Van Patten Street in the lower part of the Hot Springs District — at 609, 611 and 626. The last of these is for sale, possibly to test the market. The freshly painted 980-square-foot mobile home, built in 1979, with a new deck and a metal carport on a 50-by-120-foot lot is valued for tax purposes at less than $50,000. Rio Mesa Realty of Elephant Butte, which handles most of Pre-Real’s rentals and sales, is asking $179,000. The house at 611 Van Patten has 1,146 square feet, was built in 1930 and is now leased. The property at 609 Van Patten recently was almost entirely rebuilt and is now rented, according to a neighbor.

818 Kopra is typical of the starter homes purchased by PreReal with the intent of selling or renting them to young people attracted to the area’s recreational assets and capable of working remotely.

— Three recently upgraded residences at 511 Corona, 218 Cedar and 818 Kopra are owned by “1144 Forest LLC” — the address of a New York property so the potential capital-gains tax savings can be tied to the new properties. The number of corporate names makes it difficult to track all properties controlled by Berman and Prendamano, but PreReal Investments’ website has a listing of residential properties for sale or for rent. A tenant of one of the houses said she likes the house, but thinks the rent is too high.

Among PreReal’s more far-flung properties are six rustic houses on Lost Canyon Drive on an isolated extension of land on the west side of Elephant Butte Reservoir, about 10 miles north of the city of Elephant Butte. The company proposes to rent these houses short-term as bed and breakfast inns. 

— Six residences on Lost Canyon Drive — at 117, 118, 121, 122, 125, 129 — in an unincorporated, isolated area on the west side of Elephant Butte Reservoir, about 10 miles north of Elephant Butte. The smallest house has 800 square feet, two bedrooms, is “just steps from Lost Canyon Lake” (sic) and fully furnished, including linens, towels, cookware and dishes. No price or rent is mentioned. The largest has 3,800 square feet, three bedrooms, four baths and is for rent for $2,700 a month. PreReal identifies all of these houses as bed-and-breakfasts. A neighbor says the new activity has meant new traffic on the dirt road. 

— 113 Wimberly Way, Elephant Butte, within the Turtleback Mountain Resort, has 2,580 square feet, three bedrooms, two baths and was built in 2008. The website says the resort offers tennis courts and a swimming pool, even though none currently exist, and overlooks the #3 green and #4 tee box. It is for sale, but no price is given.

— 111 Nambe Loop, Elephant Butte, outside of the Turtleback Mountain Resort, is a single-wide mobile home with 1,280 square feet, three bedrooms, two baths. It was built in 1995 and remodeled in 2023. For sale for $209,500. 

— 1001 Henson Street, Williamsburg, has 1,200 square feet with three bedrooms and two baths, built in 1940 and remodeled in 2023, on 16 acres. For sale for $229,000.

— 919 Foch, Truth or Consequences, has four bedrooms, three baths and 3,600 square feet. Recent renovations include fresh paint, new flooring throughout and a completely remodeled kitchen. For sale for $295,000.

— Other single family residences in TorC include 1403 Nickel, 501 and 606 Corona, 302 E. 2nd St., 615 Corbet, 901 E. 6th, 617 Ash, 207 W. 6th, 708 N. Fir, 810 Kopra, 810 Locust, 908 and 1009 Spruce; 915 and 1015 Poplar, 911 Juniper and 820 Grape.

PreReal anticipates Truth or Consequences will soon need new multifamily housing as tourism resurges and motels and bathhouses return to short-term rentals. It is proposing renovating the old Butler’s Apartments & Mobile Home Park at 600 Riverside. The three acres has 13 units in a half dozen structures, but parts are deteriorating and unoccupied with shipping crates blocking entrances from the surrounding streets.

— 600 Riverside, formerly known as Butler’s Apartments & Mobile Home Park, across the street from the Rio Grande, includes three acres and 13 units in a half-dozen structures plus several trailer pads. A few structures are occupied, but parts of the complex have been empty for years. Shipping pallets are set up to block the entrances from the streets. PreReal says it has a contract to purchase the property. Assessor records still list others as owners, with a valuation of $397,683.

— Other Truth or Consequences sites slated for new development, according to Prendamano’s presentation to the county commission on Jan. 23, include three acres on Locust Street, eight to 10 lots on Radium, 16 lots on Wyona, nine acres near the river and a park on Gray Street, eight lots at 3rd Avenue and Elm, eight lots at 3rd and Magnolia, eight lots at 3rd and Coleman, 14 acres on Coleman, five residential blocks at Pine and Leslie, and 210 acres on Smith Road.

— PreReal owns more than 400 undeveloped residential lots, mostly around Elephant Butte. Berman says he doesn’t know the exact number because of how the County Assessor records them, some as individual sales and others grouped together in one sale. Some have roads and utilities; some do not. They vary greatly in sizes and valuations. The largest tract of undeveloped land is the Alamosa Ranch, 600 acres plus 54 residential lots of 1 acre each, in an isolated area near the north end of Elephant Butte Reservoir along Alamosa creek and canyon that connect to the lake.