Each year, The Land Report publishes a list of the 100 largest private landowners in the US, and this year’s list saw a major swing in the standings thanks to a blockbuster land deal that took place in New Mexico in December 2025.
Billionaire real estate magnate Stan Kroenke acquired more than 937,000 deeded acres of ranchland from the heirs of Teledyne founder Henry Singleton. Not only was the sale of Singleton Ranches the largest land purchase in the US in more than a decade, it was also reported to be the largest ranch sale in American history.
“An additional dimension to this historic transaction? It was completed in absolute secrecy,” wrote The Land Report. “No advertising. No online marketing. No press releases. Neither the seller’s broker, Republic Ranches, nor the buyer’s broker, Hall and Hall, would comment on any aspect of the marketing or sale of this almost million-acre portfolio. Not a single aspect of the transaction was known publicly until The Land Report revealed the change of ownership to Kroenke Ranches at the 2026 Land Investment Expo.”
The secretive deal made Kroenke the largest landowner in New Mexico and the United States as a whole, with total holdings across the country reported at 2.7 million acres spread across Texas, Wyoming, Nevada, Montana, and New Mexico, according to The Land Report.
Kroenke founded THF Realty, one of the nation’s most successful real estate development firms, but most people know him for his more public-facing positions as owner of the Los Angeles Rams (NFL), Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL), Colorado Rapids (MLS), and Arsenal FC (Premier League).
He’s married to Ann Walton Kroenke, an heiress to the Walmart fortune.
Along with the newly acquired Singleton Ranches, Kroenke Ranches also owns the 124,000-acre Broken O Ranch in Montana, Nevada’s 247,500-acre Winecup Gamble Ranch, the 560,000-acre Q Creek Ranch in Wyoming, and the 535,000-acre Waggoner Estate Ranch in Texas, which was the largest ranch purchase in American history when the deal was made in 2016.
Kroenke’s holdings also reach into Canada, where he owns Douglas Lake Ranch in British Columbia, the country’s largest working cattle ranch.
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