Developer Blends Charity, Profit
The Wall Street Journal, 5/11/07
More donors are combining charity with their profit-making enterprises — and sometimes it’s a challenge to define where self-interest ends and public interest begins.
A case in point is the 11,000-acre Ameya Preserve in Paradise Valley, Mont., about 45 miles from Yellowstone Park. Former finance executive Wade Dokken bought the land in 2005 for $23.3 million. Last fall, the 47-year-old Mr. Dokken received preliminary conditional approval for the first phase of construction from the local Park County Commission. In all, he plans 301 luxury homes and related commercial development. What’s unusual is that Mr. Dokken also promises a package of donations that, he says, has a value of more than $70 million.
He donated a $2 million home site to a recent benefit auction of the high-powered Robin Hood Foundation in New York, which fights poverty and attracts Manhattan’s wealthy. Future charitable plans include earmarking $10 million for local nonprofits. He’s also promised to pay for low-cost Habitat for Humanity housing (total estimated value: $300,000) and $1 million for county “social needs,” among other things.