An agreement has been reached on nearly 12,000 acres of Crittenden and Union County land owned by Kimball International. The furniture-maker confirmed the sale this morning. The land brought just over $2,090 per acre.The nearly 18 square miles of farm and timberland sold for $24.539 million, nearly a week after the company rejected a high bid of $23.3 million at auction on Nov. 8. The agreement closed out Kimball's sale of 27,196 acres of Indiana and Kentucky property auctioned last week.
The property in Crittenden and Union counties was purchased by a Timber Investment Management Organizaton, or TIMO, partnered with the Commonwealth of Kentucky to make at least part of the 11,759 acres of land a Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife-operated preserve. The name of the TIMO has yet to be released; however, sources close to the sale say it's Forestland Group, LLC based at Chapel Hill, N.C.
According to John Kahle, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Kimball International, the land was sold to fund the company's growth strategy, reinforcing an already-solid balance sheet.
"Given the properties' significant value, but relative liquidity, we believed Kimball share owners would be better served by converting this investment into cash at this time," Kahle said in a news release from Woltz & Schrader Auctions, the company that handled the sale of the acreage.
See next week's edition of The Crittenden Press for full details on the sale of the Kimball property.
