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(Bloomberg) — Colorado billionaire Stan Kroenke is the largest individual landowner in the US following his purchase of nearly 1 million acres of New Mexico ranchland last month.
Kroenke’s acquisition brings his total US landholdings to more than 2.7 million acres, according to the Land Report, boosting him above the timberland-owning Emmerson family on the publication’s annual ranking of the country’s 100 biggest property owners. Kroenke was previously ranked fourth on the list.
Kroenke, 78, is worth $26.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The majority of his fortune comes from his ownership of various sports franchises, including the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Arsenal Football Club in the UK. In Colorado, he owns the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and the Major League Soccer franchise, the Colorado Rapids.
A Missouri native, Kroenke began investing in real estate in the 1970s. He’s ramped up his rural land portfolio dramatically over the past two decades, buying vast ranch properties in Wyoming, Montana and Nevada. In December, he bought 937,000 acres of ranchland in New Mexico from the heirs of the late industrialist Henry Singleton. The price wasn’t disclosed.
Kroenke’s land holdings now span at least nine ranches in the American West and Canada and include the biggest single ranch in the Rocky Mountains, the 560,000 acre Q Creek in Wyoming. His ranches were valued at $3.9 billion before the December New Mexico purchase, according to the Bloomberg wealth index.
“Dr. Henry Singleton’s cattle kingdom was an off-market, generational opportunity,” said Eric O’Keefe, editor of the Land Report. “This was a perfect fit.”
John Malone, chairman emeritus of Liberty Media Corp., ranked third on the biggest landholders list after the Emmerson family with 2.2 million acres followed by Ted Turner with 2 million. Further down the list, Jeff Bezos ranked 21st with 462,000 acres, most of which is in Texas, and Bill Gates came in 44th with 275,000 acres of primarily farmland.
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