The Land Report Fall 2012

Our most anticipated issue of the year is HERE!

The fall issue of The Land Report is hot off the press, and that means the 2012 Land Report 100 is available for you to peruse and enjoy. Find out which leading landowner donated the largest conservation easement in history to the federal government this summer in Colorado. Learn the story of one of the country’s best-known entrepreneurs and the two parks she hopes to establish in Maine. See which Florida family has made cleaning up the Everglades their passion project.

Top it off by getting a sneak peek at the 2012 Land Report Broker Summit, which was held at Boone Picken’s Mesa Vista Ranch.

So be our guest and enjoy our latest issue HERE!

For more up to the minute reports on listings, auctions, sales, and breaking news pertaining to land and landowners, be sure to follow The Magazine of the American Landowner on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

The Land Report Fall 2011

The nation’s leading landowners are buying more land! That’s one of the many conclusions to be drawn from the 2011 Land Report 100 now on newsstands.

Thanks to his acquisition of more than 1 million acres of timberland, Liberty Media chairman John Malone vaulted in the No. 1 spot, unseating his good friend and business partner Ted Turner. Malone readily admits that he got the “land-buying disease” after touring a Turner ranch. In addition to Malone and Turner, other high-profile landowners featured in the 2011 Land Report 100 include Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos at No. 28, hedge fund manager Louis Bacon at No. 45,  and the Hearst family at No. 63.

The cover story features Oklahoma’s Bob Funk, whose Express Ranches is recognized as one of the top seedstock producers in the cattle industry. Readers will journey with Funk to the UU Bar Ranch, a New Mexico landmark that straddles the historic Santa Fe Trail at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

The digital version of The Land Report can be accessed via your laptop, on your iPad or iPhone, with your Blackberry, as well as on your Android.

Click HERE or just type in the following URL: http://read.dmtmag.com/issue/44511

 

Malone’s Millions

Liberty Media CEO John Malone goes long on land and buys 1+ million acres of Maine timber. Read more

The Land Report Spring 2011

NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana headlines the Spring 2011 issue of the Magazine of the American Landowner with an exclusive interview. Travel to Sonoma County for a behind-the-scenes look at Villa Montana, the stunning 503-acre estate that has been the Montana family’s wine country getaway since Joe’s retirement from the NFL.

Also in the spring issue, a Special Report on America’s Top 30 Auction Houses. This annual rundown features the nation’s leading auctioneers and is an indispensable resource for anyone thinking of investing in land.

Each issue of The Land Report can be accessed via your laptop, on your iPad or iPhone, with your Blackberry, as well as on your Android.

Click HERE or just type in the following URL: http://read.dmtmag.com/issue/27294.

 

Land Report March 2011 Newsletter

Take a look at this month’s edition of The Land Report newsletter, and you’ll see a wide array of opportunities to invest in land. From the pastoral – Virginia’s horse country – to the nitty gritty – Fayetteville shale gas interests – and of course the time-tested returns of Midwest farmland, land’s appeal as a tangible commodity continues to rise. No doubt this trend will only strengthen thanks to John Malone’s January purchase of more than 1 million acres, primarily in Maine but also in New Hampshire, the biggest transaction in decades.

For more up to the minute reports, follow The Magazine of the American Landowner on Facebook and Twitter.

P.S. Our award-winning quarterly magazine is available in a print version via subscription.

Land Report 100: A New No. 1?

Published reports point to a potential new leader atop The Land Report 100. Colorado’s John Malone, who closed on the 290,100-acre Bell Ranch in August 2010, is scheduled to add an additional 1+ million acres in Maine and New Hampshire to his holdings this week. When added to his existing portfolio of 1.2 million acres, it would be enough acreage to vault him from No. 5 on The Land Report 100 to No. 1, ahead of the Irving Family, Brad Kelley, Red Emmerson, and the current No. 1, Ted Turner.

The story is making national news, including an article by Katherine Seelye in The New York Times titled “For Land Barons, Acres By the Millions.” Wrote Seelye,

John C. Malone, a media mogul who is on the verge of buying nearly one million acres of timberland in Maine, could soon become the largest private landowner in the United States, catapulting him ahead of Ted Turner on the list of those who accumulate earth the way others accumulate, say, bison.

The Times quoted Land Report Editor Eric O’Keefe, who noted that “… when the tabulations are done and this transaction closes, Mr. Malone definitely will be America’s largest landowner.”

According to the Portland Press Herald, Malone’s BBC LLC will acquire 1,004,346 acres belonging to GMO Renewable Resources, a forest investment management company:

“The acquisition will  give Malone ownership of more than 5 percent of Maine’s total land mass of 22 million acres. All but about 30,000 acres of his purchase is in Maine with the remainder in New Hampshire.“

Sold! The Bell Ranch

On August 17, Liberty Media CEO John Malone bought the 290,100-acre Bell Ranch, an event that qualifies as the largest single ranch sale since Ted Turner bought Vermejo Park from Pennzoil in 1996.  Price and terms on the $83-million listing were not disclosed.

Odds are you already know New Mexico’s Bell Ranch. At 453 square miles, it’s kind of hard to overlook. But to focus on size alone is to overlook a much richer story. The Bell has been featured in countless Westerns and dramatically depicted on millions of Stetson hatboxes. If you’re old enough to remember when tobacco companies could advertise, the ranch’s mesas and pastures were the timeless backdrop in many a Marlboro print campaign. Few venues epitomize the American West like the gorgeous grasslands, stunning mesas, and rugged rimrock canyons surrounding the distinctive bell-shaped mountain a short ride north of the Canadian River.

The Bell Ranch is a place of lore and legend whose contemporary history dates back to an impossibly large land grant of some 656,000 acres by the Mexican government to Pablo Montoya in 1824. Only the hills know how long the Comanche, the Kiowa, and the Apache made camp along the banks of La Cinta Creek before the Spanish army officer petitioned Mexico City for his lands.

Almost two centuries have passed since Don Pablo took title to more than 1,000 square miles of what eventually became the New Mexico Territory. Its ideal setting—the ranch ranges in elevation from 4,200 to 5,600 feet above sea level—is more reminiscent of the African Serengeti than the Great Plains or the Llano Estacado. Top-notch cowmen such as the pioneering trailblazer Charlie Goodnight have long marveled at the ranch’s plentiful waters, its protein-rich grasses, and the temperate climate. The lure of this remote cattle kingdom is so strong that the Bell has enticed five formidable men to commit themselves to shepherding the ranch since 1933: Albert Mitchell, George Ellis, Don Hofman, Rusty Tinnin, and Bert Ancell, the general manager, who had 41 years of experience on the Bell. Half a dozen hands with an average of 15 years service on the Bell worked with Ancell.

This peerless legacy is one of the many priceless assets that make the Bell more than simply another big spread. Take, for instance, the ranch’s horse breeding program, which can be traced back to a remount herd used by the U.S. cavalry almost a century ago. The ranch has also developed a closed composite breed of cattle. Known as RedBell, the breed consists of carefully selected Red Angus and Hereford bloodlines, plus smaller percentages of Brahma and Gelbvieh. And of course there is also the ranch’s iconic one-iron brand. First registered in San Miguel County in 1875, it has been in continuous use ever since.

After more than a century in operation, the Bell was carved into six tracts and parceled off after the end of the Second World War. But for William Lane II, its legacy would have ended with this dissolution. In 1970, the chairman and chief executive of General Binding Corporation purchased the 130,000-acre headquarters tract near the center of the Montoya Grant, and over the next six years he dedicated himself to rebuilding the great ranch. Ultimately, he acquired a total of 290,100 acres, an astounding 44 percent of the original grant.

Lane and his family also put in place improvements that dramatically enhanced beef production. Seven large operating units are cordoned off by 342 miles of fence and connected by 530 miles of interior roads. Ninety miles of pipeline water 206 stock tanks and 117 wells and windmills. The end result is a world-class working cattle ranch that can support 5,000 animal units.

In 2006, the Lane family began its quest to find another steward for the Bell. Several leading brokerages marketed the property, including Mason and Morse Ranch Company and Orvis Cushman & Wakefield. But the Great Recession took its toll. The original asking price of $110 million was lowered to $99 million and then to $83 million in 2010 (not including livestock).

The one constant throughout this process was Patrick Bates of Bates Sanders Swan Land Company, who was brought on to consult for the Lane family in 2006; by 2010 he was the broker of record. In March, Ron Morris of Ranch Marketing Associates contacted him. Like Bates, Morris is a veteran ranch broker with an impressive C.V. His client was none other than John Malone, Liberty Media’s CEO and one of the most respected stewards of the land in Rockies. A new chapter in the history of the Bell was about to begin.

Download the 2010 Land Report 100 HERE.

Liberty Media CEO Malone Now No. 5 Landowner

The big move in this year’s top ten is Liberty Media CEO John Malone, whose purchase of the 290,000-acre Bell Ranch this August leapfrogged him ahead of the King Ranch Heirs and the Singleton Family to No. 5 at 1.2 million acres. Thanks to his conservation-minded land ownership, Malone has earned many friends (both two-legged and four-legged) over the years. In an interview on Bloomberg in July, Malone said that his friend Ted Turner was partly his inspiration. “It is sort of a lasting economic asset, and if you are charitably minded and you like conservation, you sort of can do well by doing good,” he said. “I own a lot of land. In fact, Ted and I are neighbors in New Mexico.”

Forbes Profiles Land Report 100

Forbes.com bills itself as the “Home Page for the World’s Business Leaders,” and on Monday the website lived up to its moniker by profiling the top ten U.S. landowners as featured in The Land Report 100. Among the many names familiar to Forbes readers were CNN founder Ted Turner at No. 1 and Liberty Media head honcho John Malone at No. 7.

The website also made a point of singling out several notable news items that have recently run at LandReport.com, including Hall and Hall’s recent listing of the 62,000-acre N Bar Ranch in Montana for $45 million and the sale of Colorado’s Boot Jack Ranch by Telluride broker Bill Fandel for $47 million.

Land Report Editor Eric O’Keefe was quoted as describing current market conditions as follows:

“Investors are no longer sitting on the sidelines, and sellers want liquidity.”

Read the entire article HERE.