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A Million Acres is Now Off the Market
“Buy land, they’re not making it anymore,” goes the quip attributed to Mark Twain. Well, by one measure, there is now over 2,000 square miles—or more than one million acres—less of the stuff available.
That’s the aggregate total of private land acquired by America’s 100 biggest landowners last year, according to the 2018 Land Report 100. More than a quarter of that total came from the fourth-ranked Reed family, who acquired 359,232 acres—approximately 561.3 square miles, or a larger area than the city of Los Angeles—along the West Coast during 2018.
Cable industry pioneers John Malone and Ted Turner top the list of the nation’s largest private landowners with 2.2 million acres and two million acres, respectively. Neither man added to his holdings last year.
Other leading landowners include the King Ranch Heirs, who rank 10th nationwide with more than 900,000 acres, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who ranks 28th. Bezos uses his 420,000-acre Texas ranch to launch and land rockets.
Malone’s land use is a little more down to earth than Bezos’. The Liberty Media founder’s 2.2 million acres encompass cropland, ranch land and woodland. His holdings include Silver Spur Ranches, a cattle operation that spans four states.
In a 2012 Fortune magazine profile, Malone described his land-buying and landowning manifesto—one that would do credit to any large-scale commercial property investor. “Does it make economic sense? Does it bleed money, or is it self-supporting and self-managing? Do I have to get involved in day-to-day operations of the business, or does it have competent current management? Does it represent economic diversification for myself and my family?”
In fact, large-scale landownership is a family matter, judging by the Land Report 100. More than two-thirds of the entries in the top-100 roster include the words “family” or “heirs.” The Reed family is joined by four other family groups in the top 10, including the third-ranked Emmerson family.
For the landowner who is less concerned with economies of scale than bragging rights, the Land Report’s Top 10 of currently available properties is topped by an offering that goes for nearly four times the listing price of the second-ranked asset.
It’s 1652 Tower Grove in Beverly Hills, a 157-acre plot with 360-degree views of Los Angeles and the Pacific Coast. Asking price: $1 billion.
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny
https://www.landreport.com/
- ◦Sale/Acquisition
