The lake effect climate of Michigan’s Great Southwest has become quite popular with a Virginia-based real estate investment trust which has just made another major investment in Van Buren County.
Gladstone Land Corporation, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, announced this week that they have acquired a 176-acre blueberry farm in Van Buren County’s Grand Junction for $2.1 million. Upon completion of the acquisition, Gladstone Land entered into a 10-year, triple-net lease with True Blue Farms, one of the most prominent blueberry growers and marketers in the nation. The property currently consists of approximately 100 planted acres of blueberries and is fully irrigated with access to multiple water sources.
Joseph Van Wingerden is Senior Associate at Gladstone Land. He says, “We are pleased to announce the acquisition of another excellent blueberry farm and to expand our relationship with True Blue Farms.” Explaining the desire to advance their holdings, Van Wingerden says, “Western Michigan offers fertile growing conditions due to the lake-effect climate and highly-productive soils. We hope to continue expanding our holdings in the region.”
David Gladstone is President & CEO of the trust. He says, “This acquisition adds another top-tier farm growing healthy produce to our portfolio.” He adds, “We look forward to continuing to build on our existing tenant-farmer partnerships during 2018. Our current acquisition backlog remains healthy, and we hope to be able to acquire several additional farms that grow a variety of crop types throughout the year.”
Gladstone was already a sizable land owner in Van Buren County, having purchased a 119-acre blueberry farm in Covert five years ago in the spring of 2013. That was the trust’s first venture here and was intended to lay the groundwork to buy up other row crop farms around Michigan.
When Gladstone made that first purchase here five years ago, the CEO said their reasoning was, “There are a lot of farmers out there just leasing their farms who have children with no orientation for the business.” He added, “They’re getting older and looking for some liquidity.”
Gladstone invests in farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets across the U.S., which it then leases to farmers, and pays monthly distributions to its stockholders. The company reports the current fair value of its farmland on a quarterly basis, saying that as of December 31, 2017, their estimated net asset value was $13.96 per share.
Gladstone Land currently owns 75 farms, comprised of 63,351 acres in 9 different states across the U.S., valued at approximately $538 million. Its acreage is predominantly concentrated in locations where its tenants are able to grow fresh produce through annual row crops, such as berries and vegetables, which are generally planted and harvested annually, as well as permanent crops, such as almonds, blueberries, and pistachios, which are planted every 10 to 20-plus years.
Gladstone has indicated they may also acquire property related to farming, such as cooling facilities, processing buildings, packaging facilities, and distribution centers. The trust has paid 61 consecutive monthly cash distributions on its common stock since its initial public offering in January 2013. The current per-share distribution is $0.04425 per month, or $0.531 per year. Additional information can be found at www.GladstoneLand.com and www.GladstoneFarms.com.
Owners or brokers who have farmland for sale in the U.S. should contact:
Eastern U.S. – Bill Frisbie at (703) 287-5839 or bill.f@gladstoneland.com
Western U.S. – Bill Reiman at (805) 263-4778 or bill.r@gladstoneland.com
Midwest U.S. – Bill Hughes at (618) 606-2887 or bill.h@gladstoneland.com
For stockholder information on Gladstone Land, you can call (703) 287-5893.
