Florida: “It’s Almost Like a Fire Sale”

A University of Florida study has put a staggering number on just how badly the economic crisis has impacted rural land values in the Sunshine State. The study concludes that land values plummeted upwards of 55 percent in 2008 from highs just one year previously.

The study focused exclusively on rural land, mostly those outside of urban areas that would have been hot spots for development just prior to the worldwide economic collapse.

“In some cases, it’s almost like a fire sale,” said Rodney Clouser, the UF professor of food and resource economics who led the survey.

The study found the northern part of the state most affected with values dropping the aforementioned 55 percent.

Farmland, that which traditionally would be the main focus of The Land Report readers, saw declines that reached as much as 26 percent.

What’s worse is the predicted continued decline in 2009.

Land prices are expected to continue their drop through 2009 — although not as dramatically as in 2008. Survey responses from individuals involved in the Florida real estate market predict an overall drop between 5 and 17 percent.

The full UF report is available here.

3 – Brad Kelley -1.7 million acres

Last year we were correct in reporting that Kelley was one of the ten largest landowners in the U.S. The only problem was Kelley’s multi-state holdings rank him third on the Land Report 100, not seventh, a fact that was borne out by a subsequent article about The Land Report that ran in The Wall Street Journal. Kelley’s billion-dollar fortune stems from tobacco. In 2001 he sold his cigarette manufacturing company, Commonwealth Brands, maker of Bull Durham, USA Gold,and Malibu.

He has subsequently acquired properties in numerous states, including an estimated 40,000 acres at a cost $58 million in DeSoto County, Florida. The man is no real estate developer, however. His numerous acquisitions have all been in the name of wildlife conservation.

 Work crews have been busy constructing fences and establishing veterinary operations on his Florida properties to better care for the many rare species of rhinos, pygmy hippos, gazelles, antelopes, wildebeests, impalas, and wart hogs that Kelley’s employees have been painstakingly breeding and nurturing in the hopes of dispersing them to zoos across the country and around the world.

24 – Collier Family – 280,000 acres

The Collier family has had a substantial presence in the Sunshine State since the early part of the 20th century, when Barron Gift Collier headed south from New York City and bought more  than a million acres in southwest Florida. Today the family owns a reported 280,000 acres and runs operations that include cattle ranching, vegetable farming, and citrus production, among others.

53 – Fanjul Family – 155,000 acres

Forced out of Cuba by Fidel Castro, the Fanjuls relocated to South Florida, where they established themselves as one of the state’s largest landowners, as well as the nation’s leading producer of refined sugar, with brands such as Domino, C&H, and Florida Crystals. The largest biomass power plant in the U.S.? Yet another Fanjul business.

12 – Lykes Bros. Heirs – 578,302 acres

Founded more than a century ago by Howell Tyson Lykes and his seven sons, the family-owned company owns Lykes Ranch, one of the largest contiguous pieces of property in the Sunshine State and the home to some 20,000 cattle. It also owns the 02 Ranch in West Texas, a 239,981-acre spread in the Chihuahuan Desert not far from the Mexican border.

1. Ted Turner – 2 million acres

Why on earth would one man own 20 properties in 10 states, a swath of America so large that it not only dwarfs Rhode Island, but also exceeds both Rhode Island and Delaware combined? The answer is astonishingly simple. Because he’s Ted Turner.

The man is incapable of thinking small. That’s how he made his fortune, first by buying a failing UHF station and transforming it into WTBS. Then he launched CNN. Then he acquired the MGM movie library. Then he rolled out Turner Classic Movies. With Turner, one idea begets another, which is how he became the country’s leading land baron.

The brainstorm behind his far-flung empire was a single bison he bought in 1976. Three decades later, he owns 40,000, the largest private herd in the country. Bison steaks and bison burgers from Turner Ranches are shipped to upscale grocers coast to coast and served at his chain of restaurants, Ted’s Montana Grill.

Along the way, he purchased 14 ranches in 7 western states: 4 in Montana, 4 in Nebraska, and 3 others in South Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma. In New Mexico alone, he owns more than 1 million acres.

“I acquired more land because I required more land. I wanted it,” Turner said in a 2004 interview. “I never like to buy anything except land. It’s the only thing that lasts.”

The Turner portfolio also includes personal homes in the Atlanta area and in Big Sur, as well as plantations in South Carolina and Florida, where his beloved Avalon lies. This treasured retreat encompasses more than 25,000 acres south of Tallahassee, and with a conservationist’s touch, Turner is reintroducing longleaf pine on the property. The vast majority of his holdings, however, can be found on the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountain West, where he stocks his bison.

Turner’s ultimate plan? According to published reports, after his death the properties will go into a trust, which his five children will manage until the last one passes away. At that point, the trust will revert to the Turner Foundation, an Atlanta-based charitable organization that Turner founded in 1990 to preserve the environment.