The Land Report 2025 Farmland Deal of the Year encompassed more than 5,700 acres in Greene County, Illinois. Farmland Reserve, an investment arm for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, purchased the bulk of the property — 5,478 acres — from the Adwell Corporation for $47.7 million in a sealed-bid process. An additional 263 acres at the southern end of the property sold to Illinois-based Emerald Valley Farms for $2.7 million.

“It is a special opportunity as a broker to be able to offer something of this scale as a whole,” says Howard Halderman, president and CEO of Halderman Real Estate Services, which teamed with Moore & Warner Farm Real Estate to market the property.

“We received a few proposals on some smaller portions, but overall, the market preferred to keep it intact.”

The western edge of the farm borders the Illinois River, and most of the property lies within the river valley. It is levee-protected, with internal drainage ditches and pumping stations to send overflow water back into the river during periods of excessive rainfall. As a result, Halderman says the property has the characteristics of farms located farther south along the Mississippi River.

“When you see 5,700 acres sold in Illinois, a lot of people might be thinking prairie. But that’s not what this is,” Halderman says. “It’s not like most farms in Illinois. It’s more of a Delta river farm. It doesn’t have the climate for those types of crops, like rice and cotton. But in the way that it operates with the water control and how it’s up against the river, there are a lot of similarities to a Delta farm.”

Moore & Warner president Jonah Kolb says his firm has had a multiyear relationship with The Adwell Corporation, which is based in Jacksonville, Illinois. When Adwell officials approached Moore & Warner about selling their Greene County property, Kolb said the firm decided to bring on Halderman Real Estate Services to assist with the marketing and due diligence.

“A deal of this size is unusual. You don’t bring a transaction like this to market overnight. We laid a lot of groundwork to get to that point,” Kolb says. “Then on a transaction of this magnitude, you have to be prepared to deal with institutional investors. So it made sense for us to partner with Halderman to maximize our marketing reach and to be able to respond to the due diligence requests of a very sophisticated group of buyers,” he adds.

The two brokerages developed a data room that provided yield history, soil tests, and irrigation statistics. Potential buyers had to be approved before gaining access to the data room; then they submitted sealed bids. Farmland Reserve was awarded the primary contract. The transaction closed in October. The smaller section that Emerald Valley acquired closed in February.

“It takes a lot of work to have aggregated a property of this size and keep it under single ownership over time,” according to Kolb.

“As a firm, when there are tracts like this, we recognize the history of the work it took to put it together. So, it’s an historical honor, but it’s also a service to future landowners when you can deliver something of this size. That’s part of what made it exciting to be involved in this deal.”

2025 FARMLAND
DEAL OF THE YEAR:
Adwell Greene County Farm
Illinois

SELLER:
Adwell Corporation

SELLER’S BROKERS:
John Bechman • Howard Halderman • Joshua Wagenbach
Halderman Real Estate Services

Ross Albert • Jonah Kolb
Moore & Warner Farm Real Estate

BUYER:
Farmland Reserve