Is it any surprise that the owner of the Everything Store also happens to be one of the largest landowners in the U.S.?
Jeff Bezos is among the 100 largest owners of private property nationwide, according to data compiled by the Land Report and reporting by Bloomberg. The list includes Ted Turner and Stan Kroenke, who owns the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams among other teams.
That rarefied top 100 list of people own roughly 40 million acres, or about 2 percent of the country’s total land, according to the report.
Just a decade ago, the top 100 had fewer than 30 million acres.
Amazon founder and the world’s wealthiest person, Bezos has acquired about 420,000 acres of land over the last 20 years. That, however, pales in comparison to billionaire and Libery Media chairman John Malone’s 2.20 million acres.
In total, 10 individuals and families control almost as much land as the total amount of land in all of West Virginia. The list includes several families who own timber and ranch properties plus some notable other billionaires, according to Bloomberg.
Overall, the top 100 own the highest share of state land in Maine, New Mexico, Texas, Florida and Oregon.
In Florida, two of the largest owners of land are the Fanjul family with their Florida Crystals sugar cane business, and the Colliers family which has large orange groves in south central Florida.
In New York, billionaire hedge fund manager Louis Bacon, owns the 435-acre Robins Island off Long Island, which he bought in 1993 for $11 million.
And in California, the state is dominated by families who own farmland and ranches. The Boswell family controls the country’s largest privately-owned farm in Corcoran, between Fresno and Bakersfield. [Bloomberg] — Keith Larsen