Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Top 100 Landowners In the United states

It's time for our quasi-periodic visit to The Land Report for the lowdown on who owns what.
From PR Newswire:
The 2014 Land Report 100: America's Largest Landowners Making Even Bigger Investments
The Land Report releases 2014 Land Report 100 presented by Fay Ranches; Malone and Turner still largest, but Reed Family jumps to No. 5 with purchase of 600,000-acre JELD-WEN Oregon estate.
DALLAS, Oct. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing the trend of investing in some of America's most iconic viewsheds and working landscapes, The Land Report released the 2014 Land Report 100 presented by Fay Ranches highlighting the major investments and even bigger personalities of America's largest landowners. In all, private holdings increased by nearly 500,000 acres over the last year. 

Among the major movers is nationally known homebuilder D.R. Horton, founder and chairman of DR Horton Inc. (DHI), which acquired New Mexico's 457-square-mile Great Western Ranch. This transaction landed Horton at No. 32 on this year's list. Horton purchased the 292,779-acre Great Western from Denver investor Patrick Broe. But don't worry about Broe. Thanks to holdings in Colorado and Wyoming, he stayed on the list and is at No. 76.  

And that wasn't even the biggest sale. The Reed family, owners of Green Diamond Resource Company, acquired 600,000 acres of Oregon timberland from the estate of Richard Wendt, founder of JELD-WEN Windows & Doors. The purchase upped the Reeds from No. 10 in 2013 to No. 5 in 2014. This swath of rural Oregon is almost the same size as Rhode Island and is the largest land transaction in the U.S. since Liberty Media Chairman John Malone acquired more than 1 million acres of timberland in Maine and New Hampshire in 2011. That buy put Malone atop The Land Report 100, where he remains in 2014 with 2.2 million acres. His good friend and fellow cable entrepreneur Ted Turner is No. 2 with more than 2 million acres. Rounding out the top five are California's Emmerson family with 1.86 million acres, Kentucky billionaire Brad Kelley with 1.5 million acres, and the Seattle-based Reeds with 1.37 million acres.
The cover story dives into the intricacies of one of the largest ranches in the U.S., the 535,000-acre Waggoner Ranch that spreads across six North Texas counties. For over 150 years, the Waggoner family has stewarded this historic property, which was recently listed for sale for $725 million. The ranch runs thousands of cattle, breeds champion Quarter Horses, has oil and gas production and more – all attributes of this "super asset class."...MORE
For our European readers: 1000 acres equals 404.6 hectares.
Here's The Land Report's home page and the 2014 Land Report 100 via Fay Ranches, 37 page PDF

Previously:
September 2014 
Largest Landowner In the U.S. Is Buying Hotels In Ireland
February 2014 
"Half of U.S. Farmland Being Eyed by Private Equity"
September 2013
Who Owns America's Farmland?
November 2012 
The Quietest Billionaire: "The Man With a Million Acres"
July 2012 
The 100 Largest Landowners in America
March 2012 
The King of California and the Largest Farm in the United States (BWEL pink sheets)