Faith-Based Capital Reshapes American Suburbs With Long-Horizon Land Plays
Property Reserve, the real estate investment arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is developing master-planned communities on land the church has held for decades in Colorado, Florida, Arizona and Texas. A Bloomberg review of property records shows the church owns at least 2.4 million acres across the US with an assessed value exceeding $20 billion, though the true figure is likely much higher given nondisclosure states and investments through external funds. Tributary, a 960-acre community near Denver International Airport, will house more than 12,000 residents alongside commercial and civic infrastructure. In central Florida, the church partnered with Tavistock Development to build Sunbridge, a 27,000-acre project planned for more than 36,000 homes over several decades.
Property Reserve is led by Ashley Powell, a Deutsche Bank and Bentall Kennedy veteran who joined in 2017. Transactions at Property Reserve and its affiliate have nearly doubled since his arrival compared with the prior decade, according to Reonomy data. The church’s deals include a $210 million purchase of Washington farmland in 2021, outbidding an investment firm tied to Bill Gates, and an April 2026 acquisition of a Boca Raton apartment complex in one of South Florida’s priciest multifamily trades this year. Brokers describe the church as a cash buyer willing to pay premiums for long-term ownership, often closing quickly and underwriting deals with time horizons spanning 50 to 100 years.
Florida’s Sunbridge development required hundreds of millions in infrastructure spending and prompted the state to create a special district with bonding authority to oversee funding. The church initially sought to annex more than 52,000 acres of Deseret Ranch land into Orlando, which would have expanded the city by roughly 60 percent, but withdrew the plan in 2024 after opposition from Orange County officials and residents. Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation in June establishing the Land Reserve Stewardship District in Hillsborough County on mostly church-owned land, raising concerns among residents about flood risk, traffic and environmental impact. Property Reserve’s Buswell said commercial real estate holdings are intended to provide durable cash flow for the church’s mission, while legacy farmland is being repurposed for development due to population growth.
The church’s centralized investment structure and professional leadership distinguish it from other religious institutions, operating more like a sovereign wealth fund than a typical diocese, according to brokers and academics. Its nonprofit investment manager, Ensign Peak Advisors, reported more than $60 billion in publicly traded securities as of June 2026, though it settled SEC charges in 2023 for $5 million over allegations it used shell companies to obscure holdings. The church’s real estate portfolio includes offices, apartments, hotels, agricultural land and temple sites across multiple subsidiaries, with Utah accounting for roughly 22 percent of known holdings by parcel count, followed by Florida at 9 percent and California at 7 percent. Nathan Eldon Tanner, a business executive who joined church leadership in the 1960s, helped systematize the real estate strategy as a way to build long-term capital reserves.
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