A hint at Gates huge farm holdings emerged in a 2014 Wall Street Journal profile of Michael Larson, the money manager who serves as Cascades chief investment officer. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. This means that you can find good deals that may be just the thing you are looking for. 4 In fact, he reportedly owns more farmland than any other individual in America. As the population grows in large cities, some people will inevitably want to move to the country. So why did the Land Report dub him Farmer Bill this year? Bill Gates is the largest private owner of American farmland, which is why so many people are wondering what he will use it for. Bruere said some states such as Iowa enforce foreign ownership restrictions to prohibit foreign ownership or limit . That was a virus I got from Ted Turner.. He also purchased the 800-acre Bridlewood Farms in Florida. The billionaire knows best mentality detracts from the deep-seated realities of colonialism and white supremacy, and it ignores those who actually know best how to use and live with the land. Land holds ample opportunities for growth and development, yet you may find that there is more land than there is competition. | Photo by Wikimedia Commons . Additionally, through his personal investment firm, Cascade, Bill Gates owns approximately half of the Four Season Holdings' hotel chain. Dr. Alan Busacca, professor emeritus at Washington State University, told Land Report at the time that the fertile land in the area was used for growing 'apples, cherries, carrots, dryland and irrigated wheat, and row and field crops'. It is possible to make high double digit returns on land that you bought for an affordable price only a few years prior. Housecall is the official blog of RISMedia, covering real estate news and information for agents, brokers and their clients. Bill Gates' purchase of a large patch of land in North Dakota has sparked fury and conspiracy theories on social media after the Microsoft billionaire secured legal approval to purchase the. buying an increasing share of the U.S. housing market. *According to figures compiled by The Land Report in 2019. Although the sale price has never been made public, the 492-acre home was listed for $8.9 millionand we cant imagine Bill and Melinda doing much haggling. I mean, it is unlikely that one of the richest people in the world would invest in something that wasnt a good investment, right? Our exposure to Invitation Homes is owning its stock in mutual funds we manage, not buying houses w/ them,. These purchases are also a direct result of their daughters equestrian career hopes because of Wellingtons close proximity to the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. ', Cascade did not elaborate on the agricultural land purchases other than to say that the company is 'very supportive of sustainable farming.'. If you own a good amount of land, then you have the possibility of subdividing it into multiple lots that can generate separate income streams. That program ensures agriculture on the land is audited to meet standards, like soil health and water management, created by the nonprofit Leading Harvest, which counts one of the subsidiaries of Gates investment firm as a partner. Behind Gates in terms of investment in farmland are the cofounders of the Wonderful Company, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, with 190,000 acres. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Hershey's Canada releases HER for SHE bars featuring a trans activist, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race. Land will likely never be a bad investment, as long as the land is healthy and properly located. He said that this is where large tracts of rich farmland is used to raise livestock and grow many of the vegetables that end up in grocery aisles up and down the East Coast. The agency further found that over 50 percent of cropland is rented to farmers who dont own their land. Beach House in Del Mar, California: $43 Million. Gates and his investment team own more than 240,000 acres, as reported by Eric O'Keefe, including 2,167 acres in Michigan. They accounted for almost 1% of the agricultural land in the United States. According to 2021 article from the Land Report, a magazine about land ownership, Gates owns approximately 242,000 . Seems like there could be a lot to benefit more of their charities by selling some of this off. Here is the . Gates portfolio comprises about 242,000 acres of farmland and nearly 27,000 acres of other land across 19 states, according to The Land Report, a magazine for land investors that tracks the nations biggest landowners. You just have to keep it relatively clean, mow it, and pay property taxes. This is part of APs effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. The 66,000-square-foot home overlooks Lake Washington and, although there is no exact estimate of the homes value currently, it had a total assessed value of $147.5 million on 2009 property tax documents. False. In fact, this also means that you may not even have to apply for a loan to start the investment! by Harvard Universitys Joint Center for Housing Studies. In 2009, the Gates' reportedly purchased a ranch in Wyoming that once belonged to Buffalo Bill Cody. There is a certain irony, of course, about Gates, 65, becoming the USA's biggest private owner of farmland, which American publication the Land Report recently declared him to be. Much of Turner's land is used as grazing land for over 50,000 head of buffalo the largest private herd of bison in the world. The billionaire couple, in less than a decade, have accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states, more than the entire acreage of New York City. On Friday, a showdown between two of the largest agricultural landowners in the United Statesthe Church of Latter-Day Saints and Bill Gates ' wealth management firmcame . It may even be easier to sell smaller lots than it would be to market the entire portion of land that you invest in. Tuesday, the office of the Attorney General sent out a letter asking the Red River Trust to confirm how the company plans to use the land . The Gates Rancho Santa Fe estate was purchased in 2014 because of its horse stables and proximity to a local race horse track. There . Bill and Melinda have purchased numerous properties in Wellington, Florida, over the years. The project is in its early . Renewable energy company Savion has an option to buy the property for what . You may have heard that Bill Gates owns a lot of land, but you may not know how much. He also owns three hotels in Dublin, Ireland, and a fourth in Limerick. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times) (Ruth Fremson / The New York Times via Redux Pictures), John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. (Matt Odom / for NBC News), John Quarterman stands by the Withlacoochee River. The comments below have not been moderated, By In 1994 Bill and Melinda Gates are said to have hired Michael Larson to help them diversify their property portfolio. You may also be interested in why a billionaire wants land. The family's 1.7 million acres of land are primarily spread across Washington, Oregon, and California. MINOT, N.D. North Dakotans like to pride themselves on being pro-property rights. It also allows you to keep a portion of the land for personal use so you do not have to give up your weekend home or relaxation property. While he owns nearly half of the Four Season Holding's hotel chain through Cascade, he also has partial ownership of Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Weve never been one of the big institutional buyers of single family homes, BlackRock said in response to one tweet. Bill and Melindas main residenceand by far their most impressive homeis a massive compound in Medina, Washington nicknamed 'Xanadu 2.0' in a reference to Citizen Kane. BlackRock is sometimes confused w/ Blackstone, which owned Invitation Homes. And that its going to take big swaths of land, like what Bill Gates has taken, to do that, said Konda Mason, the founder and president of Jubilee Justice and Potlikker Capital, which funds and supports regenerative agriculture projects owned by people of color. When pressed during a book discussion on Reddit about why hes gobbling up so much farmland, Gates claimed, It is not connected to climate [change]. The decision, he said, came from his investment group. Cascade Investment, the firm making these acquisitions, is controlled by Gates. Recently, an article in Land Report stated that Bill Gates owns more American farmland than anyone else. There farmers primarily grow soybeans, rice, corn and cotton. Apparently Bill Gates now owns almost 242,000 acres of land in the United States. And the firm said its very supportive of sustainable farming. In Nebraska where he owns 20,000 acres, it is used for soybeans. Public records suggest Cascade Investments has bought its farmland through a web of at least 22 limited liability shell companies across the country. CLAIM: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates owns the majority of Americas farmland and the investment firm BlackRock holds the majority of single family houses in the country. Bill Gates acquired six parcels of land in Pembina County. In 2014, he reportedly purchased more than 4,500 acres in Suwannee County, Florida, for nearly $28 million. Private Residence at the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana: Estimated $5-25 Million. The January 11 issue of The Land Report is worth reading. Cascade did not immediately respond to a phone message Friday, and the company declined to comment to The Land Report other than to say that Cascade is very supportive of sustainable farming, the outlet said. FILE - Bill Gates attends a discussion during the 'Munich Security Conference' in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. Do whatever you want to with the land as the value increases. Bill Gates now owns more farmland than anyone else in the United States, as the tech tycoon has quietly purchased 242,000 acres of farmland in several states across the country. BlackRock is sometimes confused w/ Blackstone, which owned Invitation Homes. Some of that land, including nearly 300 acres, was sold in 2019 to the California-based Grimmway Farms, the worlds largest carrot producer. Someone else is owning that asset, whether it's rented equipment or land. Bill Gates is best known for revolutionizing personal computing, but lately he's gotten back to the land. That kind of hard work isnt what made him rich. Media billionaire Ted Turner has also invested in 2 million acres of land (much of it rangeland and prairie, rather than cropland) and earned the distinction of being the largest private owner of buffalo herds that roam the 200,000 acres of his private ranch, The Guardian reported. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-box-4','ezslot_4',104,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-box-4-0'); Well, why would you think that a billionaire would want to own land? It is unclear why Gates, better known as a self-confessed computing 'nerd', has invested in farmland so heavily, and details of the land are scarce,as revealed in The Land Report. The farmland was purchased through a constellation of companies that all link back to the couples investment group, Cascade Investments, based in Kirkland, Washington. While he owns a significant amount, it is a relatively small slice of the nations nearly 900 million total farm acres. Bill Gates may no longer be the worlds richest man, but he can claim a new title: Americas farmland king. Gates diversified his investment portfolio through land ownership, but why? Members of the Stanley family now work for Generations. The 14,000 acres in Washington is used for potatoes and in Florida the land is used for carrots. Dailymail.com Reporter Malone owns several ranching and real estate businesses predominantly in Maine, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This can be an affordable way to get started with your raw land investments. Although the price that the Gates paid for this property was never made public, theres a $300,000 initiation fee, and more than $37,000 in annual feesand you still have to purchase a home within the community. In total he owns 268,984 acres of land of all types in 19 states, including a suburb up for development - as a so-called 'smart city' - outside Phoenix, Arizona. It just seemed like a good thing to do., 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, A map has revealed which billionaire owns the most land in the US, and it's not Bill Gates, John Malone owns about 2.2million acres of land across the United States, In comparison, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates owns about 270,000 acres of farmland, Malone is worth an estimated $9.22billion, Meet the largest landowner in the US as map reveals stunning amount of land billionaire owns and its not Bill Gates. Land is power, land is wealth, and, more importantly, land is about race and class. The billionaire media mogul Ted Turner epitomizes such disparities. According to the Tri-City Herald, 14,500 acres of Eastern Washington farmland was recently sold to the couple for almost $171 millionthats nearly $12,000 an acre. Not only is it usable by you, but land can be used for so many different things. Kroenke is married to Ann Walkton Kroenke, an heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune. We've received your submission. Gates . A 2014 Wall Street Journal profile of Larson, Cascade's chief investment officer, hinted at the beginning of that portfolio, after the piece noted that the firm owns 'at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states or an area seven times bigger than Manhattan.'. While the Gateses are best known for their philanthropic work tackling large-scale societal problems, like funding the coronavirus vaccine and controlling malaria via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they have also invested in some companies rethinking food production and have endorsed the use of genetically modified seeds as one way to increase farming productivity and feed more people globally. Since 2017 he reportedly holds a significant stake in 24,800 acres of land on the west side of Phoenix. Thanks for contacting us. The land we all live on should not be the sole property of a few. If you are unsure where to start, you can also check country tax sales. Farmers just aren't owning the assets anymore. There are also growing trends revolving around the purchase of low acreage farmland and noncommercial farming. Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft, has been revealed as the biggest private owner of farmland in the US, after buying up 242,000 acres in 18 states. The piece noted that the firm owns at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states or an area seven times bigger than Manhattan.. Where Does Bill Gates Own Farmland in the US. As more and more land becomes developed, less and less raw land is available, which potentially increases the value as demand remains the same or even increases. Bill Gates is in the money flow business, and farmland, as well as other land, can generate a lot of money. of the richest people in the country, owns less than one percent of the nations total farmland. The agriculture sector is important, he wrote. , said his investment group was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. Last year, Bill and Melinda purchased a sprawling beachfront 6-bedroom, 4-bath home in Del Mar, Californiaoutside of San Diegofor $43 million.