Gladstone Land Corporation needed less than seven years to more than double its investment on 5,630 acres of Florida farmland that the company acquired in July 2018. The company announced on January 29 that it sold the five farms for a total of $52.5 million, a 112 percent return on equity invested.

“This property was acquired through a purchase from a large landholder in Immokalee, Florida,” said Brett Smith, Gladstone Land’s Southeastern director. “In late 2024, we received an offer to purchase the property at a compelling valuation and elected to proceed with the sale. We still own over 13,000 acres of farmland in Florida.”

In announcing the original purchase of the property in 2018, Gladstone Land CEO David Gladstone said the company was reinvesting proceeds from the sale of an Oregon farm though a like-kind exchange. He said the original plan was to hold onto the Florida property for a longer period of time. But persistently higher interest rates combined with an appealing offer prompted the company to sell.

“Our strategy is generally to buy and hold properties for the long term. However, we are willing to listen to offers for our farms if the price is right and we believe it to be in the best interest of the company and its shareholders,” Gladstone said in a news release. “With interest rates remaining high, we are exploring alternative options with certain farms. (This includes) some strategic sales and, at times, entering into agreements where we finance a portion of the planting, growing, and harvesting costs on certain farms in exchange for receiving a larger share of the resulting crop sales.”

Gladstone added that the company plans to use a portion of the proceeds from the Florida sale to retire $19 million of debt on the property that was scheduled for an interest-rate repricing later this year.

Based in McLean, Virginia, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties in major agricultural markets in the US. The company leases its properties to third-party farmers. The company currently owns more than 150 farms in 15 states comprising approximately 106,000 acres – along with 55,000 acre-feet of water assets in California – with a total value of approximately $1.4 billion.

Gladstone leases its farmland to tenants who grow row crops as well as permanent crops such as almonds, apples, cherries, figs lemons, olives, and pistachios. Approximately 30 percent of the acreage for the company’s fresh produce and more than 20 percent for its permanent crops are either organic or are in transition to become organic.