Meet The 2 Largest Landowners In New York State

Have you ever wondered who owns the most land in New York State? Is it a private family, or a business?

A website called World Population Review has pretty up to date information and stats on land owners around the world.

Approximately 72% of land in the United States is privately owned, and just a few individuals and families control a significant proportion of this land.

According to the site, the largest landowners in the United States are John Malone, the Emmerson Family, Ted Turner, the Reed Family, and Stan Kroenke. John Malone is the largest landowner with about 2.2 million acres of land across the country, including in Maine, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.

So who is the largest land owner here in New York state? According to the World Population Review website, the largest private landowner in New York is Columbia University, which owns 209 properties.

Columbia University owns twice the number owned properties as the next largest private property-holder, NYU, and almost three times the 72 addresses allotted to the New York Public Library.

While the square footage of its holdings puts it in seventh place, in terms of actual buildings and parcels of land owned, it’s only second to New York City, with 246 sites. The university has been in the midst of a major expansion of late what with its new Manhattanville campus, and its new medical building in the Washington Heights campus."

The largest landowner that isn't Columbia is actually the Catholic Church. It owns lots of church buildings but also a great deal of real estate with it too.

You can read more on these stats online here.