A Texas real estate brokerage specializing in one-of-a-kind properties — with a focus on ranches — is adding a high-profile broker in the Lone Star State to its team.
Icon Global, a Dallas-based specialty brokerage firm that handles a variety of properties from French chateaus to estates on the English countryside to Texas ranches, has brought on Don Bell to its team. Bell was the broker who represented the buyers led by "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan in the sale of the Four Sixes (6666) Ranch in King County, Texas, in 2022. Sheridan's group bought the 266,000-acre ranch in a deal valued at more than $320 million. The ranch, bigger than the city of San Antonio, was used in filming portions of the "Yellowstone" television series.
"Don is a good broker, who is purposeful, focused and dedicated," Bernard Uechtritz, founder of Icon Global, told CoStar News in an exclusive interview. "He has such a big book of business, but flies under the radar. When I told him I'd love to put Icon Global's marketing machine behind him, it perked up his ears and began the conversation."
Bell's sale of the Four Sixes Ranch was complicated. Outside of real estate, the ranch had intellectual property as well as livestock and horses included in the deal. The Four Sixes brand even has its own beef products and alcoholic beverage distribution line.
The addition of Bell comes at a time when Icon Global is growing its national presence with new offices planned for Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, California, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Nebraska. Each new office is relatively small, reserved for when the contracts are ready to be signed, but it symbolizes a new era for Icon Global, Uechtritz said, declining to disclose all but one office location in Sheridan, Wyoming.
"I'm looking for high-caliber brokers in key areas and key states," Uechtritz added. "Generally, local brokers come from the cattle or horse industry — and are generally individuals caught up in the traditional real estate model. They don't have the global reach to a targeted audience, which I have developed over my 38 years in the business."
Uechtritz was involved in the $725 million sale of the W.T. Waggoner ranch that spans roughly 535,000 acres in West Texas to L.A. Rams owner Stan Kroenke in 2016.
Uechtritz said Icon Global's expertise "can give these brokers the reach they need when marketing these ranches. That's where the sweet spot occurs," he added.
In turn, Bell told CoStar News the move to Icon Global was a "shift in gear" for him personally, as he expands his reach to a national and global level by working alongside Uechtritz and his team. Bell is licensed to sell real estate in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma and formerly worked under the Don Bell Properties banner, based near Weatherford, Texas.
"The alignment between Bernie and I really helps us both attract the kind of clientele that want to own these properties," Bell said.
Large ranch deals have evolved over time to include everything from solar, water, wind, mineral rights and IP as high-net-worth individuals see the inherent value of land — an appreciating asset — as a way to safely shelter wealth, Bell said.
"Many of these are generational-type ranches, and there's a serious task in finding new ownership groups that will be good stewards of the land," he added. "This is a big responsibility and, in watching Icon Global, I've always been impressed with how they market the assets and help bring in good buyers."
As Icon Global takes the reins of marketing these ranches globally to would-be buyers, Uechtritz said it gives good ranch brokers the ability to do what they do best: spend time on the ranches they are marketing.
"I'm the conductor of that orchestra in the engine room of Dallas," Uechtritz told CoStar News, in describing his role at the helm of Icon Global.
To keep up with its expansion plans, Icon Global plans to move its Dallas headquarters from 3466 Gillespie St. to a bigger location in Preston Center or Deep Ellum. Uechtritz said he's currently touring office properties with plans to move into a bigger office by year's end.