Latter-day Saints

Barita Investments, a securities dealer, has quietly accumulated nearly 2,000 acres across Kingston and the north coast, and is now moving from land acquisition into active development at scale.

Farmland Reserve, the real estate arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, bought 46 farms covering 41,500 acres in eight states for $289 million, adding to about 1.7 million acres of US farmland.

Three members are suing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, saying their tithes were invested, not spent on charity, by an arm said to hold over US$100 billion whose two major outlays were an insurer bailout and a US$1.4 billion mall.

Three former Latter-day Saint meetinghouse sites in Ogden, Utah, have been sold and rezoned for up to 92 homes, as the church says some buildings have reached the end of their useful life.

The Latter-day Saints listed their earthquake-damaged 1926 Wells Ward chapel in Salt Lake City for $1.6 million on condition that the buyer demolish it, drawing objections from preservationists and a councillor.