The Church as the 5th Largest Private Landholder in U.S.

[smac97]

Tribune: New database gives widest look ever at LDS Church landholdings. See what it owns and where.

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From thousands of acres of farmlands to thousands of places of worship and from shiny commercial enclaves in urban centers to flowing fields in swelling suburbs, a newly released list shows The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns U.S. properties valued at nearly $16 billion and ranks the Utah-based faith among the nation’s top private landholders.
...

Still, the sheer scope of church-held domestic real estate yields mind-stretching numbers. And the findings emerge when many Latter-day Saints and church observers are already agog at other recently reported multibillion-dollar figures associated with the faith’s wealth.

This latest cache of data — captured in 2020 and released Tuesday by the Truth & Transparency Foundation (formerly known as MormonLeaks) — reveals a nearly 16,000-parcel collection of 1.7 million acres held by identified LDS Church firms. While the list is not complete, it nonetheless shows church lands in every state, just about every sizable metropolitan area and big blankets of territory in between.

I have previously been quite critical of MormonLeaks for its encouragement of employees of the Church to steal documents and information from the Church and secretly send such things to them.  

This story is not that.  They have done investigative work using public records.  Nothing wrong with that at all.

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Found in the church’s portfolio — along with the expected meetinghouses and temples — are office towers, shopping centers, residential skyscrapers, cattle ranches and high-mountain timberlands worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

I can't help but see that there are things notably not "{f}ound in the church's portfolio," namely, mansions / villas / dachas for the leaders of the Church to enjoy for themselves.

I also can't help but notice that the Church's portfolio seems to be comprised of "working" - revenue-generating - properties.

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The faith is now Florida’s biggest landowner, controlling well above 2% of its landmass, including an enormous collection of pasturelands outside resort-rich Orlando called Deseret Ranches and a recently acquired expanse of hundreds of thousands of forested acres in the Panhandle.

The "recently acquired" thing seems a bit off, since that purchase was back in 2013.

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Church companies such as Property Reserve, Suburban Land Reserve and Farmland Reserve are sitting on large tracts of developable land in a host of American suburbs. These holdings are heavy in metro regions throughout the rapidly growing South and West — just as the U.S. economy is primed with high demand for new homebuilding.

And the Church has situated itself to have a good ROI on these real estate holdings.  

And since neither the Brethren nor anyone else are enriching themselves via the Church, the returns can be spent for the benefit of members and society in general.  I think that's pretty cool.

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Even this partial portfolio would make the church — with nearly 7 million members nationally and more than 16.6 million worldwide — the fifth largest private landowner in the U.S., according to The Land Report, which tracks holdings among some of the nation’s wealthiest families.

The report shows only California-based Sierra Pacific Industries, owned by a third-generation family with 2.3 million timberland acres; businessman and philanthropist John Malone, who led cable giant Tele-Communications Inc. (2.2 million acres); the Pacific Northwest’s Reed family (2.1 million acres); and CNN founder and media tycoon Ted Turner (2 million acres) have more.
...
In response to a Salt Lake Tribune query, church spokesperson Doug Andersen said that “real estate holdings are used to fulfill the religious mission” of the faith.

“This includes,” he added, “providing for the welfare and humanitarian operations of the church; providing for religious worship (chapels, temples, missionary offices, educational centers and efforts and more); and preserving a sacred religious site or its surroundings and enhancing the character of the local community.”

Andersen said the global church follows the “Savior’s teaching that we should be ‘good and faithful’ stewards over the sacred donations that come from his followers (Matthew 25:14-21). This includes purchasing, holding and operating farms and other real estate properties as investments as a part of the church’s reserves.”

I think a lot of people have some difficulty with the notion of a religious group A) making money to advance its religious objectives, and B) being a good steward of sacred funds.  I understand the broad criticism from some who think that the Church should spend "more" on philanthropic/humanitarian purposes, but otherwise I am curious as to why this is controversial. 

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The portfolio has a value of $11.8 billion set by county assessors for tax purposes, McKnight said, but with a market value of $15.8 billion, established by Reonomy’s algorithms. And even that all but certainly lowballs the actual value of all the U.S. land the church owns.
...

Patrick Mason, head of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University in Logan, called the $15.8 billion total a “staggering sum.”

“It helps us appreciate just how remarkably successful the church has been over the past half-century or more,” Mason said, “in transforming itself from a local, Intermountain West-based sectarian religion to one that really is pervasive throughout the United States.”

In terms of acreage, the properties listed — though likely undercounted and undervalued — exceed several estimates by scholars of the faith’s domestic landownership.

I think that's a fair assessment.

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Frequently clustered around Latter-day Saint temples, the portfolio’s most lucrative commercial holdings feature in the country’s top downtown cores. The church’s office, residential and retail towers rise up and down the East and West coasts. They also emanate from Utah into neighboring states — all part of the so-called Jell-O Belt — and across the U.S. interior.

Examples in Philadelphia (including a 30-plus-story apartment tower across the street from a temple), Chicago (a 40-story residential tower in the South Loop) and other cities offer distinct echoes of the mixed-use development model found at City Creek Center, with its stores, restaurants, condominiums and apartments near Salt Lake City’s Temple Square.

One church-backed project in the Mormon-settled suburb of Mesa, Ariz., could be dubbed City Creek South. It has all but replicated that urban in-fill approach, though on a smaller scale, with 12,500 square feet of ground-floor retail outlets, 240 apartments, 12 town homes, 70,000 square feet of landscaped open space and underground parking built around a renovated Mesa Temple served by light rail.

The makeover has revived an area in desperate need of a boost.

“There was a time where the heartbeat was difficult to find in downtown Mesa,” Mayor John Giles said last fall in a church news release. “...[The church’s] decision to invest in our downtown sent a great signal to the rest of the smart investors that said, ‘Well, gee, if they’re doing it, that’s a sign that it’s got potential.’”

Andersen, the church spokesperson, pointed to the Philadelphia and Mesa projects as examples of the faith’s investments “enhancing the character” of a community.
...
The list contains up to $696 million or more in residential lands, vacant spaces and other swaths in America’s suburbs, much of it poised for development. The database details a total of at least 181,000 acres in empty residential lands and vacant farmlands in larger and rapidly growing metro areas, places such as Tulsa, Okla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Lafayette, Ind.; Albany, Ga.; and Modesto, Calif. (where the church just announced plans to build a temple).

I like that the Church is trying to build up communities, many of which really need it.

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Plenty of farms crop up in church holdings

Perhaps the most impressive of the church’s lands in terms of acreage are some of its gargantuan food-production and cattle-growing operations, run by its farming subsidiaries, Farmland Reserve and AgReserve.

The database documents farm holdings worth at least $2.3 billion, with notably huge sections of it in Nebraska, rural Montana, Florida, Texas and Utah. Farms, ranches, pastures, orchards and other agricultural lands under church ownership stretch horizon to horizon, with tens of thousands of contiguous acres in many cases.

A church subsidiary called AgriNorthwest recently outbid a Bill Gates-owned company with an offer of $209 million to buy Easterday ranch properties in eastern Washington out of bankruptcy proceedings. The working ranch included 12,000 acres of potato, onion and cattle lands as well as valuable water rights.

Based on acreage, agriculture makes the church one of the nation’s largest holders of farmland and ranchland — and the country’s largest nut producer, centered on expansive orchards in Northern California. Its cattle operations brand it among the largest beef suppliers to the McDonald’s restaurant chain.

I like that the Church is invested in agribusiness.  Nostalgia for family-owned farms notwithstanding, growing food is a business now.

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Though some of the food is sold commercially, it’s unknown just how much of the production is income-generating and how much goes toward the church’s far-reaching humanitarian operations and support for members worldwide. Nor is it clear what income is generated by its commercial properties, including substantial leasing income from office and retail tenants.

But what is known is that these food production and other business ventures are not enriching the Brethren.  Just pointing that out (again).

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Between city jewels, lands for future homes and agricultural empires, the church appears to have a version of just about every other kind of parcel in between.

Its holdings include acres assessed for use as island resorts, hotels, airports, golf courses, amusement parks, theaters, vineyards, warehouses, truck stations, funeral homes, health clubs, mines and cemeteries. There are even millions of dollars in thousands of tiny odd-shaped parcels and other bits and pieces known as easements.

The continental breadth of the faith’s holdings is also astounding.

I'm glad the Church is no longer cloistered in Utah.  Hasn't been for quite a while now.

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Does the church pay taxes on all this land?

Church authorities have consistently said that their for-profit real estate and other business endeavors pay the required taxes.

The vast majority of church properties in the new database are categorized by county assessors for worship, making them tax-exempt.

Add to that a host of other special-purpose properties, dedicated public spaces, vacant areas and other kinds of low-producing acreage, and nearly $8.5 billion total assessed value in the church land portfolio potentially would qualify for lower local property taxes, not including farmlands.

Not so for $2.8 billion or so labeled on this list assessed as commercial properties. And it’s unclear from these records how income from these church-owned properties might be taxed.

This is, I think, a legitimate concern.

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That bothers some members and nonmembers alike.

Chad Pomeroy, a law professor at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, wrote a 2019 article decrying a lack of financial transparency required of the church, given its tax-exempt status as a religion and a relative lack of financial reporting for all churches in the U.S.

When guessing about total LDS Church wealth, the scholar said, “some people call it ‘wild speculation.’”

“I don’t know if it’s wild, but it is speculative,” said Pomeroy, who graduated from BYU’s law school, “because we don’t get the information we’re asking for — even though, in effect, the U.S. taxpayer is underwriting the accumulation of this wealth.”

Irrespective of the shock value of dollar totals involved, he added, “what’s jarring to me is that you have a tax-exempt entity that’s allowed to aggregate this amount of assets without telling anybody what they’ve got.”

I scanned Prof. Pomeroy's article.  His main beef: "While there is nothing inherently wrong with religious organizations amassing wealth, it is troubling that they do so while enjoying informational and tax advantages not afforded to other entities. ... Indeed, this Article's foundational claim is these advantages are so significant that they have come to shape the aims and actions of many religions, effectively bending the nature of many organizations away from traditionally religious and charitable work and toward profit-seeking.  This state is both unintended and inequitable. As such, these advantages should be eliminated."

It's a pretty good article, and worth a read if you have time.

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For all the church’s documented U.S. land wealth, scholarly research shows the denomination owns and manages large reserves of land in Britain — of a size rivaling the royal estate — along with massive acreages in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Australia.

USU’s Mason said investing in land fits the church’s conservative buy-and-hold values in protecting its investments — born of the church’s financial difficulties in the 1950s and ‘60s.

“I know nothing about real estate development, except that they aren’t making any more land,” he said. “This seems very much like they are planning. They’re not just thinking about next year or five years from now. They’re thinking about 50 years from now.”

Yep.

I didn't expect this part of the story:

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The foundation announced Monday it was ceasing operations, making the property investigation its last project published under the Truth & Transparency name.

“Like everyone, our lives have changed greatly in the past two years,” foundation co-founders Ryan McKnight and Ethan Gregory Dodge wrote in an account accompanying the release on the group’s website, “and we both feel this is the best decision moving forward for our personal and family lives.”

I suspect McKnight and Dodge would keep their operation running if it was a money-maker (as we have seen with Dehlin's Mormon Stories), but that its not, so they aren't.

Thanks,

-Smac

[gav]

Practicing what they preach, I think that's a good thing.

[Calm]

I only had a quick glance at the article, but it looks like it is from April. I thought we already discussed this. 

[Stargazer]

3 hours ago, smac97 said:

The "recently acquired" thing seems a bit off, since that purchase was back in 2013.

One man's "recent" is another man's "yesterday."

[Calm]

Here:

https://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/74461-the-private-real-estate-portfolio-of-the-church/

 

[carbon dioxide]

The Lord owns the entire earth.  So it would make sense for the church to legally own a good chunk of it right now.  The Lord will take full legal possession of the earth in the future.  As for tax issues, if the government had a problem with how the church taxes this and does not tax that, it would tell the church.   I am confident the government has full knowledge of what it does.  That fact that it bothers people who might not understand tax law is not the problem of the church.

Edited December 8, 2022 by carbon dioxide

[LoudmouthMormon]

4 hours ago, smac97 said:

I have previously been quite critical of MormonLeaks for its encouragement of employees of the Church to steal documents and information from the Church and secretly send such things to them.  

I can't help but see that there are things notably not "{f}ound in the church's portfolio," namely, mansions / villas / dachas for the leaders of the Church to enjoy for themselves.

I also can't help but notice that the Church's portfolio seems to be comprised of "working" - revenue-generating - properties.

And since neither the Brethren nor anyone else are enriching themselves via the Church, the returns can be spent for the benefit of members and society in general.  I think that's pretty cool.

I have similar issues with plain old theft, but I have to admit, MormonLeaks has pretty much proven the old adage "when you kick the church, you only kick it forward".  The leaks make us look good.  Leaders of a global church that can influence geopolitics and even stock prices, make maybe a couple hundred grand a year, if that.  Secret meetings involving having cultural trends explained, where the brethren ask probing questions that indicate a genuine desire to understand.  And I know absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it's worth highlighting @smac97's point that there is absolutely zero spend on private jets to party islands, drugs and hookers, high living for the elites.  Stuff you pretty much always find, wherever you find elites - whether you look at politics, business, military, and yes, religion.  Given the leaks just haven't found much, it's almost like the church is what it claims to be, doing what it claims to do, run by people who walk their talk.  Biggest stories I can remember are along the lines of "rich jerk Huntsman lends his jet to the prophet so he can go meet with world leaders".  

 

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I scanned Prof. Pomeroy's article.  His main beef: "While there is nothing inherently wrong with religious organizations amassing wealth, it is troubling that they do so while enjoying informational and tax advantages not afforded to other entities. ... Indeed, this Article's foundational claim is these advantages are so significant that they have come to shape the aims and actions of many religions, effectively bending the nature of many organizations away from traditionally religious and charitable work and toward profit-seeking.  This state is both unintended and inequitable. As such, these advantages should be eliminated."

Heh - something else that humans always do - someone sees a group of people doing well, and try to figure out ways to get a piece of the action.  Taxing is an excellent way, when outright theft or lawsuits aren't feasible.

 

 

The whole topic makes me think of what things will look like, if we have another deep depression like the '20's and '30's.  Can you imagine communities where church owns property doing better than the rest of the country?  I can.

Edited December 8, 2022 by LoudmouthMormon

[Buckeye]

I can vouch for the church having huge land holdings in Florida. I got to tour the ranch SE of Orlando when my parents served in farmland reserve. It’s very impressive. Legit cowboys and seemingly infinite cows and alligators. Somehow they get along. The church has nearly plowed under all the orange groves because of disease (Florida is quickly losing its orange status, sadly) But in their place up go solar panels and other crops. 

[Stargazer]

6 minutes ago, Buckeye said:

I can vouch for the church having huge land holdings in Florida. I got to tour the ranch SE of Orlando when my parents served in farmland reserve. It’s very impressive. Legit cowboys and seemingly infinite cows and alligators. Somehow they get along. The church has nearly plowed under all the orange groves because of disease (Florida is quickly losing its orange status, sadly) But in their place up go solar panels and other crops. 

So, where do they get their solar panel seeds from?

[mfbukowski]

3 hours ago, LoudmouthMormon said:

Can you imagine communities where church owns property doing better than the rest of the country?  I can.

I sure hope so.  That means those BYU boys are doing their jobs.  That is your entire goal as an investment manager.  And right now, real estate is the ONLY place to put your money right now.  I am in the business and after 3 of these debacles, this one is going to be BAD.  Free and clear income producing property is the place to be.  Let inflation rise, let the dollar drop, you have REAL property there - two senses -that hold the earth together.   In the early 80's when property swaps were popular you could use a desert lot in the middle of nowhere (geographic center of nowhere- prime real estate! ) as a down payment on, say, a triplex in the city and people would readily take it to get out their -literally true- 18-20 percent loan.   Cash was and is, king.   We're not there yet, but it CAN happen again.

We have Zion to build during the Millenium.  If we are NOT doing better than the rest of the country- how can we help them?   How can we feed clothe and shelter others if we are as bad off as they are? 

I sure hope we can turn up the fire on helping folks that really need it, because it is going to be nasty.

[mfbukowski]

12 minutes ago, Buckeye said:

 But in their place up go solar panels and other crops. 

Another sense in which the desert blooms like a rose! 

 

[Buckeye]

6 minutes ago, Stargazer said:

So, where do they get their solar panel seeds from?

Kolob. 

[mfbukowski]

11 minutes ago, Stargazer said:

So, where do they get their solar panel seeds from?

Some company whose workers need jobs when the solar panel building crashes.   Who needs solar panels when you have no food?  That may be exaggerated, but home improvments don't do well in the middle of a bad recession.

Edited December 9, 2022 by mfbukowski

[Stargazer]

3 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

Some company whose workers need jobs when the solar panel building crashes.   Who needs solar panels when you have no food?  That may be exaggerated, but home improvments don't do well in the middle of a bad recession.

Come talk to my wife about that. She's itching to do some.

[The Nehor]

Why is there an assumed impending recession?

[bluebell]

1 minute ago, The Nehor said:

Why is there an assumed impending recession?

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/02/business/global-recession-fears-explained/index.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/08/us-likely-headed-for-mild-recession-in-2023-eric-rosengren.html

[The Nehor]

20 minutes ago, bluebell said:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/02/business/global-recession-fears-explained/index.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/08/us-likely-headed-for-mild-recession-in-2023-eric-rosengren.html

I don't see it. Your second source has what I think is the exception that might save us. Labor markets are still tight for the first time in a long time. While I think we will see some business failures and probably a bit of a stock market tumble I don't see recession hitting the working classes hard when there are not enough people to fill jobs.

I might be wrong and it has been a while since the United States has been in this situation.

I think the big worries about 15 years out when full employment starts to become impossible. Or if climate change preempts that happening I guess having to choose which tribal warlord to serve in the Water Wars might count as a recession.

[Analytics]

8 hours ago, smac97 said:

And since neither the Brethren nor anyone else are enriching themselves via the Church, the returns can be spent for the benefit of members and society in general.  I think that's pretty cool.

Sure. But even though it could use the returns for the benefit of members and society in general, is that what it actually does?

Or does it use virtually all of the returns to build up more wealth?

8 hours ago, smac97 said:

I understand the broad criticism from some who think that the Church should spend "more" on philanthropic/humanitarian purposes, but otherwise I am curious as to why this is controversial. 

The Church didn't become obscenely wealthy because it uses its income for philanthropic/humanitarian purposes. The Church became obscenely wealthy because it uses virtually all of its investment income to generate more and more wealth.

As illustrative numbers, the Church takes in about $7 billion a year in tithing, and operates the church on about 90% of that. Its for-profit holdings generate another $7 billion a year of profit. Of that, something on the order of $50 million goes towards philanthropic/humanitarian purposes, and the other $6,950 million is reinvested to increase the size of its investment portfolio.

In other words, when you define "total income" as tithing revenue plus investment income, in all likelihood the church spends over 50% of its income to increase the size of its for-profit investment portfolio.

In other words, the Church's primary mission is to increase the size of its investment portfolio. According to the numbers, that is its biggest priority. By far.

 

[mfbukowski]

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

Why is there an assumed impending recession?

Nevermind.

You are fully informed, didn't know it was a "gotcha" attempt 

Edited December 9, 2022 by mfbukowski

[Scott Lloyd]

9 hours ago, smac97 said:

I scanned Prof. Pomeroy's article.  His main beef: "While there is nothing inherently wrong with religious organizations amassing wealth, it is troubling that they do so while enjoying informational and tax advantages not afforded to other entities. ... Indeed, this Article's foundational claim is these advantages are so significant that they have come to shape the aims and actions of many religions, effectively bending the nature of many organizations away from traditionally religious and charitable work and toward profit-seeking.  This state is both unintended and inequitable. As such, these advantages should be eliminated."

It's a pretty good article, and worth a read if you have time.

Does this mean you support the removal of the Church’s tax-exempt status?

[Scott Lloyd]

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

I don't see it. Your second source has what I think is the exception that might save us. Labor markets are still tight for the first time in a long time. While I think we will see some business failures and probably a bit of a stock market tumble I don't see recession hitting the working classes hard when there are not enough people to fill jobs.

You seem cavalier about a “stock market tumble.” Do you realize that many in “the working classes” rely on employer-assisted investment programs to ensure their survival in retirement? 

[mfbukowski]

31 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

You seem cavalier about a “stock market tumble.” Do you realize that many in “the working classes” rely on employer-assisted investment programs to ensure their survival in retirement? 

I have friends who now have been working extra years because of the last "tumble".

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

I don't see it. Your second source has what I think is the exception that might save us. Labor markets are still tight for the first time in a long time. While I think we will see some business failures and probably a bit of a stock market tumble I don't see recession hitting the working classes hard when there are not enough people to fill jobs.

I might be wrong and it has been a while since the United States has been in this situation.

I think the big worries about 15 years out when full employment starts to become impossible. Or if climate change preempts that happening I guess having to choose which tribal warlord to serve in the Water Wars might count as a recession.

They are predictions but not absolutes.  Inflation and interest rates are a big enough issue that a recession wouldn't be a surprise.  But who knows.  Are other economists and people in the know saying that a recession is unlikely?  I haven't looked into it.

[carbon dioxide]

The economy will be fine until China decides to act on Taiwan.   Then the Great Depression 2.0 begins.  High chance of this happening within 10 years. 

[mrmarklin]

Not sure what to make of this. Of course the church owns property around the world because it pays cash for all its chapel buildings. I would imagine that many are in valuable locations. The church certainly seeks prime locations for its temples. The church has and has had many welfare farms. This is not new. Depending on circumstances, these are bought and sold. 
I very much doubt the church is the largest landholder in FL. Disney owns most of the property within a 40 mile radius of Disney World. There’s even a special law in Fl that recognizes this as a self governing entity (apparently recently repealed). 
 

in any event, it would seem that 5he majority of the holdings are used for good purposes. 
 

But I think it pales beside the holdings of the Catholic Church.