Stan Kroenke of the Los Angeles Rams connected the sideline during a crippled against the Philadelphia Eagles astatine SoFi Stadium Inglewood, California, Oct. 8, 2023.
Ric Tapia | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
A mentation of this nonfiction archetypal appeared successful CNBC's Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a play usher to the high-net-worth capitalist and consumer. Sign up to person aboriginal editions, consecutive to your inbox.
Stanley Kroenke owns the world's astir invaluable sports empire, including the NFL's Los Angeles Rams. Now the sports tycoon is besides America's largest backstage landowner, according to the recently released Land Report.
At 2.7 cardinal acres, Kroenke's holdings are larger than Yellowstone National Park — oregon the equivalent of astir 2 cardinal shot fields.
Kroenke bought astir 1 cardinal acres of New Mexico ranchland successful December from the household down concern conglomerate Teledyne, per The Land Report. According to the commercialized publication, the Singleton Ranches transaction is the largest onshore acquisition successful the U.S. successful much than a decade. Late Teledyne laminitis Henry Singleton started his namesake ranch successful the 1980s, and it's grown into 1 of the nation's largest cattle- and horse-breeding operations.
The acquisition vaulted Kroenke from 4th to archetypal connected The Land Report's yearly ranking of the country's 100 largest backstage landowners, leapfrogging the Emmerson lumber household arsenic good arsenic billionaire media moguls John Malone and Ted Turner.
Most of the apical 100 landowners aren't boldface names similar Kroenke. The Emmerson family, which ranks second, owns an estimated 2.44 cardinal acres done their forest-products institution Sierra Pacific Industries. The Singleton family, which sold the New Mexico ranches to Kroenke, inactive made the chopped astatine 98th spot with 171,000 acres.
However, investing successful U.S. farmland has go fashionable among the ultra affluent arsenic a hedge against ostentation and banal marketplace volatility. From 2019 to 2024, farmland values person grown astatine an mean yearly complaint of 5.8%, oregon 2% aft inflation, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Billionaire entrepreneurs from Bill Gates to Philip Anschutz are progressively buying up swaths of onshore for farming, ranching and forestry. Gates ranks 44th wide connected The Land Report database with 275,000 acres but is inactive the largest backstage proprietor of U.S. farmland, specifically. Owned done his concern group, Cascade Investment, Gates' farmland grows soybeans, corn, cotton, atom and adjacent potatoes utilized for McDonald's gallic fries.
Online brokerage billionaire Thomas Peterffy and Amazon laminitis Jeff Bezos besides made the cut, with 647,000 acres and 462,000 acres, respectively.
Kroenke has been capable to turn his onshore holdings comparatively rapidly by acquiring monolithic ranches that person been held successful families for decades oregon adjacent generations. He bought 1 of his largest ranches, Waggoner Ranch successful northbound Texas, for $725 cardinal successful 2016, ending 160 years of household ownership. While these one-of-a-kind ranches are successful abbreviated supply, much are hitting the marketplace arsenic heirs determine to sell alternatively than transportation connected the household business.
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