A sweeping riverfront property north of Bend, Gopher Gulch Ranch has found its first private-sector buyer since the recession.

The Elkins Family Revocable Trust sold 100 acres on the Deschutes River bordering Tumalo State Park to Scott and Carol Ann Smallwood for $4 million in June, a deed recorded in Deschutes County shows. Compass Commercial Real Estate Services, which represents the Elkinses, announced the transaction this month.

Gopher Gulch was at one time a 704-acre tract that Brooks Resources intended to develop as a master-planned community with 2,000 to 2,500 homes. That plan fell apart in 2008, Compass partner Gardner Williams said. In the meantime, the Elkinses sold 154 acres to the Bend Park & Recreation District, which created Riley Ranch Nature Reserve. Then in 2015, they listed 350 acres for $13.1 million, according to The Bulletin’s archive.

The 350 acres turned out to be too much for any one buyer, so the listing was split into smaller pieces, Williams said. The Smallwoods, who live in Arlington, Virginia, were visiting Bend in October when they toured Gopher Gulch, said Scott Smallwood, a hedge fund manager. “All other properties paled in comparison,” he said.

Although the land is zoned to allow 10-acre residential lots, Smallwood said he hasn’t decided whether to take advantage of that.

Smallwood said he has family ties to the West Coast, so he first wants to invite close friends and family to build on the land near his future home overlooking the river. Then he might subdivide any remaining acreage.

Smallwood, 55, partially retired after he left a large hedge fund, PDT Partners, but now runs a small fund, Periwinkle Trading. It could be years before he takes up residence on the former Gopher Gulch property, he said.

Another piece of Gopher Gulch has already been divided into 10-acre lots along Pacific Heights Road, which runs due west from O.B. Riley Road and dead ends at the Smallwoods’ 100 acres. Pacific Cascade Heights was created from one 140-acre tract that Brooks Resources bought before the recession but later sold.

Edward and Dee Elkins still live on the Gopher Gulch property, which has 312 acres remaining, Williams said. They might put more 50-acre or 75-acre parcels on the market in the future, he said.

A $6.6 million federal lien on Gopher Gulch was paid off in 2005 with the sale to Brooks Land & Cattle Co., a Brooks Resources affiliate, according to The Bulletin’s archive. The lien stemmed from Edward Elkins’ 1987 conviction of conspiracy and violation of export restrictions in the sale of two Lockheed cargo planes that ended up in Libya.

Elkins was fined $6.6 million and spent more than eight years in federal prison.

The private airstrip on Gopher Gulch has been decommissioned, Williams said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7860, kmclaughlin@bendbulletin.com