Bakersfield, California
Kern County keeps Bakersfield's owners on a roll that is not online, and its website turned away every automated request; the City's own audited report names its ten largest taxpayers, which is where Valley Plaza Mall LP, Chevron, Castle & Cooke and Bolthouse Land surface, while REIT filings name Brookfield, Brixmor and Phillips Edison.
6 buildings · 5 with an owner established · 33 sources · 5 tier B · 1 tier A · prepared 2026-10-13
Can you find out who owns it?
California has no public title register: ownership is proved by deeds recorded with the County Recorder, and the County Assessor keeps the roll of assessees. In Kern County both sit with the Assessor-Recorder, whose pages on kerncounty.com refused every automated request (Akamai), so its fees and data products could not be read; the Treasurer-Tax Collector's parcel search sits behind a CAPTCHA. Because Proposition 13 resets a parcel's assessed value to the purchase price when it sells, the roll tracks sale prices, and the City's audited financial report reprints the County's roll totals and ten largest taxpayers each year. That list is the only free public document read that names private owners of Bakersfield property with values.
Is ownership public?Public, but one paid search at a time
Cost of one title searchNot available at any price
Bulk ownership dataNone published
Sale pricesEvery sale, with its address
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dignity Health Arena, Theater and Convention Center (formerly Mechanics Bank Arena; originally Centennial Garden) 1001 Truxtun Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93301 17,840 sq ft convention center; 10,000-capacity arena; 3,000-seat theater |
Civic | City of Bakersfield The venue's own announcement (12 Feb 2025) says the City of Bakersfield and Dignity Health agreed an 11-year naming-rights deal, renaming the complex from Mechanics Bank Arena. It says the venue is 'Managed by ASM Global', so ASM Global (now Legends) operates it and does not own it. The City's FY2022 ACFR accounts for 'the Rabobank Arena and Convention Center' operating revenue and spending in its Transient Occupancy Taxes Fund, and records PG&E loans for energy retrofits at the arena and theater. Wikipedia's infobox gives the owner as City of Bakersfield, opened 1 Oct 1998, cost $38M. Tier B: no deed or capital-asset line naming the parcel was read. |
Government | —B |
| Valley Plaza Mall 2701 Ming Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93304 1,095,000 sq ft total GLA (533k mall and freestanding, 270k company-owned anchors, 292k tenant-owned anchors), 2020 |
Retail | Brookfield Property REIT Inc. 90% (as of 31 Dec 2020) Brookfield Property REIT's 2020 10-K lists Valley Plaza Mall, Bakersfield, at a 90% share: 1,095k sq ft total GLA (292k of it tenant-owned anchors), 96.5% leased, anchors Macy's, JCPenney and Target. It carried a $206M mortgage at 3.75% maturing March 2025; Schedule III gross carrying amount was $310.7M. That was the REIT's last 10-K, so the current owner and the fate of the loan are not established. The City's FY2022 ACFR ranks 'Valley Plaza Mall LP' the 2nd-largest taxpayer at $142.7M. Copper Property CTL Trust (the JCPenney real-estate trust) separately lists a 'Valley Plaza' retail parcel. Tier B: the address comes from Wikipedia. |
REIT | —B |
| Bakersfield Fox Theater 2001 H St, Bakersfield, CA 93301 1,500 seats |
Civic | Fox Theater Foundation Wikipedia's infobox names the Fox Theater Foundation as owner. It says the theater opened on 25 Dec 1930 and closed in 1977. It says the Foundation formed in 1994 when demolition threatened, and that its 'Save the Fox' campaign 'raised enough funds from over 380 donors for the down payment on the building'. That section is marked unsourced. The Foundation (EIN 77-0306813) files Form 990s from 2001 H St, the theater's address: total assets $1.67M at end of 2023. Tier B: no deed or 990 land line was read, and no purchase price is stated. The theater's old domain now redirects to bakersfieldlive.com. |
Institution | —B |
| Truxtun Tower (Bank of America Building) Downtown Bakersfield (street address not established from a source read) |
Office | Not established a paid title search would answer it Wikipedia: 'Truxtun Tower, also referred to as the Bank of America Building, is the tallest in downtown and the second-tallest building in Bakersfield.' No SEC filing names it: EDGAR full-text search for 'Truxtun Tower' returned no hits, 2023-2026. It does not appear in the City's ten-largest-taxpayer list. The owner of record is on the Kern County roll and in recorded deeds, neither readable online by script: the County site blocks automated access, and the tax-collector search sits behind a CAPTCHA. A bank's name on the building is tenancy or signage, not ownership, so the owner is left blank. |
Not established | —B |
| California State University, Bakersfield (main campus) 9001 Stockdale Hwy, Bakersfield, CA 93311 375 acres |
Institutional | California State University (State of California) CSUB is a campus of the California State University system, a state public university. Its own homepage gives 9001 Stockdale Highway, which the Census geocoder places inside Bakersfield city limits. Wikipedia gives the campus as 375 acres, citing IPEDS. Tier B: state ownership follows from CSU status, and no CSU real-property inventory or deed was read. The Antelope Valley campus in Lancaster is outside Bakersfield and not counted. |
Government | —B |
| Bakersfield Plaza 4200 California Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93309 240,068 sq ft GLA |
Retail | Brixmor Property Group Brixmor's 2025 10-K property list: Bakersfield Plaza, built 1970, 240,068 sq ft, 100% leased, ABR $4.156M ($17.62/sq ft). Tenants include AMC, Burlington, Five Below, Ross Dress for Less and Lassens. Schedule III: no encumbrance shown, gross carrying amount $44.8M, acquired June 2011 (when Brixmor's predecessor portfolio was assembled). No purchase price is stated. The address comes from Brixmor's leasing page, and the Census geocoder places those coordinates inside Bakersfield. |
REIT | —A |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
There is no free public file of Kern County owners or of parcel values with owners. The County site refused every automated request, so the roll could not be read at all. The figures below come from the City's audited FY2022 ACFR, the latest edition located. It reprints the County's roll totals (prepared by HdL Coren & Cone from the Kern County Assessor's combined tax rolls) and the ten largest taxpayers. The FY2023-FY2025 ACFRs exist but sit behind the City's script-rendered page, so the figures are four years old.
City of Bakersfield total taxable assessed value, FY2022$33.39B
Up from $20.79B in FY2013. Secured residential $25.33B, commercial $5.24B, other $4.47B, unsecured $0.82B, less $1.66B tax-exempt real property. City ACFR FY2022, statistical section.
Largest private property taxpayers with real property, FY2022Valley Plaza Mall LP $142.7M; Castle & Cooke CA Inc. $123.5M
Rank 1, Nestle Dreyers Ice Cream Company ($170.0M), is a manufacturer whose roll includes plant. California Water Service ($133.3M) and Chevron USA Inc. ($133.3M) are utility and oil holdings. Also listed: Walmart ($104.5M), DS Properties 18 ($90.8M), Bolthouse Land Company LLC ($68.1M), Kaiser ($67.3M) and GSF Springs Investors LP ($64.8M). City ACFR FY2022.
Ten largest taxpayers' share of the roll3.28% (FY2022) vs 5.15% (FY2013)
$1.10B of $33.39B in FY2022. Ownership is dispersed: no single owner holds even 0.6% of taxable value. City ACFR FY2022.
City land area and City land at cost151.64 sq mi; $474.4M of land on the City's books
Area from capital asset statistics (FY2022). Land, a non-depreciable capital asset, totals $474.4M: $450.3M in governmental activities and $24.0M in business-type activities, at historical cost, as of 30 June 2022. City ACFR FY2022.
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Inside the city the largest holdings named in any document read are public: the City's parks, water and airport lands, and the CSU campus. Private holders appear only as entries in the City's ten-largest-taxpayer list, which gives a value but no acreage. The oil and farm giants associated with Bakersfield hold their land mostly outside the city limits. Their filings give basin-wide or county-wide figures, and none places acreage inside the city. Each is shown here with what its filing says and no more. Every spelling of an entity is grouped under one name.
| Name | Type | Holdings as stated |
|---|---|---|
| City of Bakersfield City ACFR FY2022 capital asset statistics: parks acreage 662 (down from 828 in FY2020), 61 parks, 4 pools, 3 community centers, 14 fire stations. Land on the City's books is $474.4M at historical cost. The City also runs Bakersfield Municipal Airport, water, wastewater and refuse systems as enterprise funds, and owns the downtown arena and convention center complex. |
Government | 662 acres of parks (61 parks); land at cost $474.4MA |
| California State University (CSU Bakersfield) Main campus at 9001 Stockdale Hwy, inside city limits per the Census geocoder. The acreage is from Wikipedia citing IPEDS. No CSU land inventory was read, so tier B. |
Government | 375 acresB |
| Chevron U.S.A. Inc. City ACFR: 'Chevron USA Inc.' was the 2nd-largest taxpayer in FY2013 ($182.5M) and the 4th in FY2022. The figure may include unsecured business property as well as land, and the ACFR does not say which parcels. Chevron's FY2025 10-K does not mention Bakersfield or the San Joaquin Valley by name. |
Public company | $133.3M taxable value, rank 4 (FY2022)A |
| California Water Service Company City ACFR, FY2022 (rank 3 in FY2013 at $141.2M). A regulated water utility. Its value is largely plant, wells and pipe, and the ACFR does not separate land. |
Public company | $133.3M taxable value, rank 3 (FY2022)A |
| Castle & Cooke California, Inc. City ACFR, listed as 'Castle & Cooke CA Inc.', up from $73.3M in FY2013. No parcel list or acreage is published in any document read. |
Private company | $123.5M taxable value, rank 5 (FY2022)A |
| Bolthouse Land Company, LLC City ACFR. Not in the FY2013 list. No acreage or parcels are named in any document read. |
Private company | $68.1M taxable value, rank 9 (FY2022)A |
| California Resources Corporation (incl. former Aera Energy LLC and Berry Corp) CRC's FY2025 10-K: about 2M net mineral acres in all, 38 operated San Joaquin fields, the largest Belridge and Elk Hills. Aera came through the 2024 Aera Merger, and the Berry Merger closed on 18 Dec 2025. These are basin-wide mineral acres, not surface land, and no figure inside Bakersfield's city limits is given. Elk Hills and Belridge lie outside the city. Aera and Berry are now CRC holdings, not separate landowners. |
Public company | 1.304M net mineral acres in the San Joaquin basin, 88% held in feeA |
| Kern County (Meadows Field Airport) Wikipedia gives Kern County as owner and operator of Meadows Field (BFL) and places it in Oildale. The Census geocoder returns no incorporated place for the airport's coordinates, so it is NOT inside the City of Bakersfield and is not counted as a city holding. The County's own property records could not be read: kerncounty.com blocks automated access. |
Government | Airport outside city limitsB |
| Tejon Ranch Co. Its FY2025 10-K places the landholding from about 60 miles north of downtown Los Angeles to 'approximately 15 miles southeast of Bakersfield at its northern boundary'. Tejon Ranch is therefore not a Bakersfield landowner: the claim was tested and does not hold inside city limits. |
Public company | about 270,000 acres, all outside the cityA |
| Gladstone Land Corporation Its FY2025 Exhibit 21 lists 'Taft Highway Bakersfield, LP' and 'Maricopa Highway Bakersfield CA, LP' among its farm-holding subsidiaries. The names give a Bakersfield mailing area only. No parcel or acreage was read, and whether either farm lies inside city limits was not established. |
REIT | 2 farm entities named for Bakersfield roadsA |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Bakersfield builds mostly detached houses. Census permits for the city: 2024, 1,547 single-unit homes, 264 units in two-unit buildings, 12 in 3-4 unit buildings and 30 in 5+ buildings. 2025: 1,401 single-unit, 178 two-unit, 3 three-to-four and 66 in twelve 5+ buildings. The 2025 file shows 5 months reported and the rest imputed by Census. January-August 2026: 948 single-unit, 182 two-unit and 51 units in 5+ buildings. National builders report only regional segments, and the roll's owner names are not online, so builder holdings could not be counted parcel by parcel. Two local master developers appear among the City's largest taxpayers.
| Name | Type | Bakersfield presence / homes |
|---|---|---|
| Castle & Cooke California, Inc. The City's FY2022 ACFR ranks 'Castle & Cooke CA Inc.' the 5th-largest property taxpayer, up from $73.3M (rank 7) in FY2013. That is the largest gain of any top-ten name, which is consistent with land being built out and reassessed. The ACFR names no parcels or projects, and no Castle & Cooke filing or annual report was read, so no home count is given. |
Private company | $123.5M taxable value, rank 5 (FY2022)A |
| D.R. Horton D.R. Horton's FY2025 10-K (year to 30 Sep 2025) lists Bakersfield among its California markets, next to Fresno/Tulare, Bay Area and Los Angeles County. The Southwest region (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico) closed 9,504 homes at an average $481,200, down from 10,135. No Bakersfield figure is given. |
Public company | 9,504 homes closed, Southwest region FY2025A |
| Hovnanian Enterprises (K. Hovnanian Homes) Exhibit 21 to the FY2025 10-K lists 'K. Hovnanian at Bakersfield 463, L.L.C.' and 'K. Hovnanian's Four Seasons at Bakersfield, L.L.C.' among its California subsidiaries. The 10-K reports deliveries only by segment: West (Arizona, California, Texas) delivered 2,824 homes at an average $480,423 in the year to 31 Oct 2025. Whether either Bakersfield entity is still building was not established. |
Public company | 2,824 homes delivered, West segment FY2025A |
| Bolthouse Land Company, LLC New to the City's ten largest taxpayers in FY2022: it was absent in FY2013. The ACFR names no parcels and gives no type of holding. Whether it is a builder or a land seller to builders was not established from a document, so no home count is claimed. |
Private company | $68.1M taxable value, rank 9 (FY2022)A |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Bakersfield's listed landlords are retail and specialty REITs, each holding one or two assets. No office REIT files a downtown Bakersfield tower. Floor area and cost are as each filing states them. The City's taxpayer list adds two private retail entities, DS Properties 18 and GSF Springs Investors LP, whose properties the ACFR does not name.
| Name | Type | Floor area / stated value |
|---|---|---|
| Brookfield Property REIT Inc. Valley Plaza Mall at a 90% share, with a $206M mortgage due March 2025 (2020 10-K, its last). Separately, the City's FY2022 ACFR names 'Valley Plaza Mall LP' as the 2nd-largest taxpayer at $142.7M. The filing does not tie that LP to the REIT, so the link is not claimed. |
REIT | 1,095,000 sq ft (2020)A |
| Brixmor Property Group Bakersfield Plaza, 4200 California Ave, 100% leased, ABR $4.16M, gross carrying amount $44.8M (FY2025 10-K). |
REIT | 240,068 sq ftA |
| One Liberty Properties Industrial building, Bakersfield, CA, 1.3% of OLP's rental income at $4.80/sq ft. Schedule III: built 1980, acquired 2018, mortgage $8.8M. Street address not given, so whether it lies inside city limits was not checked. |
REIT | 218,116 sq ftA |
| Phillips Edison & Company Riverlakes Village, Bakersfield, CA (built 1997, redeveloped 2022), acquired 16 Nov 2018 per Schedule III, FY2025 10-K. No encumbrance shown. GLA was not read from the filing. |
REIT | $27.1M gross carrying amountA |
| The GEO Group Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center, Bakersfield, CA, listed as 'Owned', under an ICE contract from December 2019 (FY2025 10-K). No street address in the filing, so the city-limits check was not done. |
Public company | 400 bedsA |
| Medical Properties Trust Rehabilitation hospital, Bakersfield, CA: land $2.18M and buildings $45.25M at cost, built 2022, acquired 15 May 2020 (Schedule III, FY2025 10-K). Cost on the books, not a sale price. |
REIT | $47.4M initial costA |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- The Kern County Assessor-Recorder's own terms: fees for owner look-ups, data files for sale, deed copies, and any licence on its data. kerncounty.com returned Akamai 403s to every request, so the spine fee fields are null. Fresno's comparable office sells its roll with owners' names by mail, but Kern's offer was not read.
- Whether Kern County, like Fresno, withholds owner names online citing Government Code 6254.21 (now 7928.205). It is plausible but not read; leginfo.legislature.ca.gov returned a Cloudflare challenge.
- Who owns Valley Plaza Mall today. Brookfield Property REIT's last 10-K (2020) shows 90% and a $206M loan due March 2025; whether that loan was repaid, extended or ended in a transfer is not established.
- Owner of Truxtun Tower (Bank of America Building): not in EDGAR and not in the ten-largest-taxpayer list; it is on the Kern roll only.
- Kern County Administrative Center (1115 Truxtun Ave) and the County courts. The address geocodes inside the city, but no County document could be read to state ownership, so it is not a marquee entry.
- Kern High School District, Bakersfield City School District and Kern County Water Agency land holdings: no inventory from any of them was read. KCWA appears in the City ACFR only as the counterparty to a 6,500 acre-feet-a-year water-rights lease.
- The Wonderful Company and Grimmway Farms holdings inside Bakersfield: both are private companies with no SEC filings, and no public document read names their land in the city. Neither is claimed.
- BNSF and Union Pacific right-of-way and yard acreage in Bakersfield: no city parcel layer was found (gis.bakersfieldcity.us serves an IIS default page), and the railroads' filings give no city figure.
- Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center (GEO, owned) and the One Liberty industrial building: the filings say 'Bakersfield, CA' but give no street address, so whether they lie inside city limits was not checked.
- The City's FY2023-FY2025 ACFRs: the index page renders through a token-authenticated content API, and only the FY2022 PDF was located. Taxpayer rankings may have shifted since.
- Recent sale prices: none was read from a primary document for any Bakersfield marquee property, so no acquisition price is quoted.
§
Sources
- Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, fiscal year ended 30 June 2022: principal property taxpayers (2013 and 2022), assessed value of taxable property 2013-2022, capital asset statistics, Transient Occupancy Taxes Fund (arena and convention center) — City of Bakersfield, Finance Department · openA
- Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports index page (content loads by script; no report links readable without running the page's API client) — City of Bakersfield · openA
- Brookfield Property REIT Inc. Form 10-K for 2020 (filed 2021-02-26): Valley Plaza Mall, Bakersfield, CA - 90% proportionate share, 1,095k sq ft, Schedule III and mortgage table — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Dignity Health Arena, Theater and Convention Center - 'Name Change': City of Bakersfield, ASM Global and Dignity Health announce naming-rights partnership (12 Feb 2025) — Dignity Health Arena (managed by ASM Global / Legends) · openA
- Fox Theater (Bakersfield, California) - infobox 'Owner: Fox Theater Foundation', 2001 H Street — Wikipedia · openB
- Fox Theater Foundation (EIN 77-0306813), 2001 H St, Bakersfield - Form 990 summary: total assets $1,665,434 at end of 2023 — ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API (IRS data) · openA
- Brixmor Property Group Form 10-K 2025 Exhibit 99.1 property list: Bakersfield Plaza, 240,068 sq ft GLA, 100% leased — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Phillips Edison & Company Form 10-K 2025, Schedule III: Riverlakes Village, Bakersfield, CA (acquired 16 Nov 2018) — SEC EDGAR · openA
- The GEO Group Form 10-K 2025: Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center, Bakersfield, CA, 400 beds, 'Owned' — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Medical Properties Trust Form 10-K 2025, Schedule III: Bakersfield, CA rehabilitation hospital (acquired 15 May 2020) — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Easterly Government Properties Form 10-K 2025: DEA - Bakersfield, 9,800 sq ft, lease to 2038 — SEC EDGAR · openA
- One Liberty Properties Form 10-K 2025: industrial, Bakersfield, CA, 218,116 sq ft — SEC EDGAR · openA
- California Resources Corp Form 10-K 2025: San Joaquin basin net mineral acreage 1,304 thousand, 88% held in fee; Aera and Berry mergers — SEC EDGAR · openA
- D.R. Horton Form 10-K FY2025 (year to 30 Sep 2025): Bakersfield listed among California markets; Southwest region 9,504 homes closed — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Hovnanian Enterprises Form 10-K FY2025 Exhibit 21: subsidiaries including 'K. Hovnanian at Bakersfield 463, L.L.C.' and 'K. Hovnanian's Four Seasons at Bakersfield, L.L.C.' — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Building Permits Survey, place-level annual and year-to-date files (West Region): Bakersfield city, 2024, 2025 and Jan-Aug 2026 — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- Census Geocoder (geographies by address/coordinates, layer Incorporated Places): boundary check of marquee addresses — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- Kern County website incl. Assessor-Recorder pages - Akamai 'Access Denied' to curl and WebFetch, robots.txt included — County of Kern · blockedC
- Kern County Treasurer-Tax Collector - home page readable; property tax search redirects to a CAPTCHA page (not passed) — Kern County Treasurer and Tax Collector · blockedA
- Meadows Field Airport - infobox: Owner Kern County; Location Oildale, California — Wikipedia · openB
- California State University, Bakersfield - infobox: campus 375 acres — Wikipedia · openB
- Bakersfield, California - 'Truxtun Tower, also referred to as the Bank of America Building, is the tallest in downtown and the second-tallest building in Bakersfield' — Wikipedia · openB
- Copper Property CTL Pass Through Trust Form 10-K 2025, Schedule III: Valley Plaza, Bakersfield, CA, retail (former J.C. Penney property) — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Reading International 8-K Exhibit 99.1 (Dec 2025): Reading Cinemas at Valley Plaza Mall in Bakersfield, 10-screen recliner conversion incl. IMAX — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Healthcare Realty Trust Form 10-K 2025 Exhibit 21: 'HTA-Bakersfield MOB, LLC' — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Form 10-K 2025, Schedule III: affordable housing rental, Bakersfield, CA, 2 properties — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Gladstone Land Corp Form 10-K 2025 Exhibit 21: farm-holding subsidiaries 'Taft Highway Bakersfield, LP' and 'Maricopa Highway Bakersfield CA, LP' — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Tejon Ranch Co Form 10-K 2025: land runs to 'approximately 15 miles southeast of Bakersfield at its northern boundary' — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Brixmor leasing page: Bakersfield Plaza, 4200 California Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93309, 240,068 sq ft, coordinates 35.368522, -119.050512 — Brixmor Property Group · openA
- CSU Bakersfield homepage footer: 9001 Stockdale Highway, Bakersfield, CA 93311 — California State University, Bakersfield · openA
- Valley Plaza Mall - infobox: 2701 Ming Avenue, opened 1967, managed by Brookfield Properties, 1,174,947 sq ft — Wikipedia · openB
- Mechanics Bank Arena - infobox: 1001 Truxtun Avenue, Owner City of Bakersfield, Operator ASM Global, opened 1 Oct 1998, cost $38 million — Wikipedia · openB
- Hovnanian Enterprises Form 10-K FY2025 (year to 31 Oct 2025): West segment (Arizona, California, Texas) 2,824 homes delivered — SEC EDGAR · openA