Companies are ditching rentals and buying up rural retreats

Large country estates offer a cost effective and serene venue for making deals

Kawikee Plantation, a corporate retreat in Georgia
Kawikee Plantation, a corporate retreat in Georgia

Companies across the country are ditching hotels and investing in private estates. From Knoxville, Tenn., to Sonoma County, Calif., companies are buying up large homes on large parcels where clients can schmooze in seclusion and serenity.

But these aren’t your grandfather’s corporate getaways, with lavish spas, live entertainment and plenty of booze in a first class location. Today, executives are buying big properties off the beaten path, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Very few organizations are willing to invest in the most expensive kinds of venues and entertainment,” Merianne Liteman, president of Liteman Rosse, a boutique corporate planning and consulting firm, told the Journal. “It looks bad to everyone.”

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Another perk: An executive is often able to write off a portion of the mortgage interest payments on federal taxes and the corporation covers most of the maintenance costs.

“I could be in the office and 45 minutes later, take some bankers down to Kawikee, and 15 minutes after that, be on horseback or fishing,” a partner at the law firm Butler Wooten Cheeley & Peak said of the company’s Georgia quail-hunting property with two lakes and stables. [WSJ] Christopher Cameron