Mormon church-owned company buys huge swath of Florida land

[Baitball Blogger]

The Mormon church stands to own nearly 2 percent of Florida by completing a deal to buy most of the real estate of the St. Joe Co. for more than a half-billion dollars.

The megapurchase was announced jointly Thursday by a corporate representative of church, which owns the nearly 295,000-acre Deseret Ranches in Central Florida, and by the real-estate and timber business, which has built several communities along the Panhandle coast.

According to the announcement, a church entity, AgReserves Inc., will buy 382,834 acres – the majority of St. Joe's timberlands – in Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla counties for $565 million.

Completion of the deal will leave the Utah-based church with 678,000 acres, an area larger than any other private holding in Florida, according to widely shared but unconfirmed rankings of top landowners.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-mormon-deseret-huge-land-deal-20131107,0,697936.story

[LuvNewcastle]

1. There seems to be little pretense about the LDS church.

It's quite obvious that they are first and foremost a money-making enterprise. Their investments span the globe. The church is set up and run just like a corporation; they are in the religion business. They send out their 'missionaries' to expand their market and they've built new church/stores all over the world. There was some talk during the 2012 campaign about Mitt Romney investing in the LDS church and making good prophets, I mean profits, from those investments but I don't think there was much more than talk about it (no investigation). Considering how that church does business, it's a wonder that they don't sell shares.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Creepiest organization of right wing crime in the nation

nt

[global1]

3. The Last Time There Was Such A Big Buy Up Of Land In Florida We Got....

Disney World.

[bluestate10]

5. You got it right. The Mormon company purchase is all about the Benjamins that can be made. nt

[bluestate10]

4. Knowing what I know about the Mormon Church and business.

This is likely a business deal where the company plans to make money. It's not an attempt to stuff Mormons into Florida. The Mormon Church has interests in huge grocery chains and other entities, none of the businesses ostensibly mouth church doctrine, they are out to make money. What the Mormon Church does with the money made is a problem, but as time moves forward, the church is getting more and more pushback from it's members. Orin Hatch and Dean Heller voted for an amendment to bar discrimination against Gays, both are devout Mormons.