The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is about to become one of Florida's largest private landowners in a move that is drawing speculation and even concern among some conservation and environmental groups.
The St. Joe Company announced a massive deal this week to sell off nearly 400,000 acres, or most of its land holdings, to a company affiliated with the Mormon Church.
The land consists of woods and rural areas stretching across a vast portion of the Panhandle, which remains one of the lesser developed portions of the state. But much of it also lies within 15 miles of the Gulf of Mexico.
AgReserves Inc., the Utah-based taxpaying church affiliate purchasing the land from St. Joe, did not provide much detail about its plans other than to say that it will maintain timber and agricultural uses on the nearly 383,000 acres.
The decision by St. Joe to sell the land for $565 million marks a significant moment since St. Joe — a company started by the heirs of the duPont family — was once the state's largest private landowner.
St. Joe in the 1990s began developing some of its holdings into resorts and master-planned communities but the real estate market downturn during the Great Recession hurt company finances.
Much of the land was first purchased by St. Joe during the '30s and has primarily been used for timber operations.
"These are historic changes," said George Willson, a Tallahassee-based conservation consultant who once worked for St. Joe, said about the sale. "This is nearly 600 square miles of land in the Panhandle ... It's a lot of great places. They are places where people hunt and fish."
Some environmentalists are wary of what will happen next. That's because the Mormon Church already controls the Deseret Ranches, a sprawling cattle ranch located in central Florida.
Eric Draper with Audubon of Florida said that AgReserves has large herds on its existing Florida property. He said cattle ranching has much more of an environmental impact than what he called the "relatively benign" process of cutting down trees.
"The question about Deseret, the question about the church, is whether or not we will see a more intensive agricultural use for the property," Draper said. "Without Deseret or the Mormon Church saying what they will do, we have to speculate."
Willson, however, said he didn't view the sale as "anything to really be afraid of" and said the church has had "good stewardship" of watersheds, including putting up fences to keep cattle out of streams.
The transaction includes land in nine counties stretching from just outside the state Capitol to land near Panama City. It does not include land already developed by St. Joe or in areas that the company plans to develop in the "foreseeable future." St. Joe said the company plans to hold on to roughly 184,000 acres.
On its website, AgReserves quotes Gordon B. Hinckley, the president and prophet of the church who died in 2008, saying that farms represent a "safe investment where the assets of the church may be preserved and enhanced, while at the same time they are available as an agricultural resource to feed people should there come a time of need."
That was echoed in a statement about the sale from Paul Genho, chairman of the board for AgReserves, who said the company looks to the "long term in everything we do."
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FAQs
Boasting a vast portfolio, spanning 678,000 acres throughout the state, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church, has become the largest landowner in the state, possessing nearly 2% of Florida's total land mass.
Why do the Mormons own so much land? ›
The church sees its land buys as a force for good, an investment in agriculture “to generate long-term value to support the Church's religious, charitable, and humanitarian good works,” said a Farmland Reserve spokesman.
How much land does the Mormon church own in the United States? ›
The Nebraska land is just one slice of the 1.7 million acres of American real estate the Mormon church is now estimated to own. That 1.7 million-acre total is likely an undercount, said Truth and Transparency co-founder Ryan McKnight, because it only includes corporations definitively traced back to the church.
What religion owns the most land? ›
Roman Catholic Church: 70 million hectares
The largest landowner in the world is not a major oil magnate or a real estate investor. No, it's the Roman Catholic Church.
How many acres is the Mormon ranch in Florida? ›
This ranch, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), spreads over the three central Florida counties of Osceola, Orange, and Brevard. Covering almost 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) of land, 90 ranchers and their families live on the ranch.
What is the largest private property in Florida? ›
The record-holder for most land owned by a single entity in the state of Florida is none other than the Mormon Church, with a total of 678,000 acres purchased. This beats out even the Roman Catholic Church in Florida, which is the largest landowner in the entire world, with more than 172 billion acres.
What is the wealthiest church in the world? ›
List of wealthiest religious organizations
| Organization | Worth (billion USD) | Country |
|---|
| The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints | 236.0 | United States |
| Sree Venkateswara Swamy Temple | 35.0 | India |
| Catholic Church in Germany | 26.0 | Germany |
| Muhammadiyah | 26.0 | Indonesia |
9 more rowsThe largest private landowner in the United States is the Emmerson family, which owns and operates Sierra Pacific Industries, one of the largest lumber producers in the country.
Where did the Mormon church get all its money? ›
According to the LDS Church, most of its revenues come in the form of tithes and fast offerings contributed by members.
How much of Missouri is owned by the Mormon church? ›
Its biggest tracts in Missouri, perhaps not surprisingly, are in Jackson County on the Kansas border, with Independence as its county seat. The faith has more than 10,000 acres countywide, with 5,920 acres held in and around Independence's city limits.
According to reports, some of the top stock holdings in the Church's portfolio have included tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet (Google's parent company), and Amazon, as well as healthcare companies like UnitedHealth Group and Johnson & Johnson, and financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase and Mastercard.
How much of Idaho is Mormon? ›
Survey: Nearly A Quarter Of Idaho Residents Are Mormon.
What religion has the most millionaires? ›
A study done by the nonpartisan wealth research firm New World Wealth found that 56.2% of the 13.1 million millionaires in the world were Christians, while 6.5% were Muslims, 3.9% were Hindu, and 1.7% were Jewish; 31.7% were identified as adherents of "other" religions or "not religious".
Who is the richest landowner in the world? ›
The largest landowner in the world currently is King Charles III of England. How much land does the Royal Family own? He and the British Royal Family own more than 6,600,000,000 acres of land around the world. They technically own many territories around the globe, amounting to 1/6 of the surface of the planet.
Who owns the biggest ranch in America? ›
King Ranch, largest ranch in the United States, composed of a group of four tracts of land in southeastern Texas, totaling approximately 825,000 acres (333,800 hectares). The King Ranch was established by Richard King, a steamboat captain born in 1825 in Orange county, New York.
What percentage of Florida is LDS? ›
Official church statistics suggest around 0.75% of the Sunshine State identifies as LDS. The Pew Research Center, however, bumps that number up to a cool 1%.
Did the Mormons buy a warehouse in Hialeah? ›
Mormon Church buys $174M industrial park in Hialeah, the biggest warehouse deal of 2023. It was the biggest industrial transaction in Miami-Dade County in 2023. Six warehouses in Hialeah were snagged for $174.3 million, but the buyer wasn't a major corporation or manufacturer. It was the Mormon Church.
What organization is the largest landowner in the world? ›
The Biggest Landowners in the World
| Rank | Name | Size (acres) |
|---|
| 1 | King Charles III and the British Royal Family | 6,600,000,000 |
| 2 | Catholic Church | 177,000,000 |
| 3 | Inuit People of Nunavut | 87,500,000 |
| 4 | Gina Rinehart | 23,969,000 |
21 more rowsCreated in 1997, the reserve fund has ballooned to more than $100bn, which is nearly twice the size of Harvard's endowment, Nielsen said.
