Grove Farm sells plot to Tennessee tycoon

Another billionaire has bought a piece of Hawaii.

Grove Farm Co. has sold about 2,750 acres on Kauai to a company affiliated with Tennessee billionaire and land collector Brad Kelley, according to property records.

While big by some standards, the sale represents a relatively small chunk of Grove Farm’s roughly 40,000 acres of land on the Garden Isle and an even smaller bit of real estate for Kelley, who by one ranking is the nation’s fourth-biggest private landowner with 1.5 million acres.

Grove Farm did not respond to requests for comment. Kelley could not be reached.

Property records show that Kelley’s company, Cumberland and Western Resources LLC, acquired three parcels in the Lihue area zoned for agriculture for about $11 million in late December.

Media reports have described Kelley as a private person with a keen interest in land investment but not media interviews.

Kelley reportedly made his fortune by starting the discount cigarette maker Commonwealth Brands in Bowling Green, Ky., and sold the business in 2001 for $1 billion. Last year he was ranked as the 273rd-richest American by Forbes with a net worth of $2 billion.

Forbes said Kelley owns 1.5 million acres of ranchland in Texas, New Mexico and Florida.

Another publication, Land Report 100, ranked Kelley as the fourth-largest private landowner in the nation.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2012, Kelley was quoted as saying that it wasn’t his goal to become one of the country’s biggest landowners.

"I grew up on a farm, and that’s about as good an explanation as there is," the Journal quoted Kelley as saying. "Land is something I know. It’s something I have an affinity for."

The Journal story also said that Kelley doesn’t develop the land he buys, but acquires land for ranching.

A story last year by agriculture industry publication Western Farm Press said Kelley was raised on a Kentucky farm and doesn’t care to shine. "Most Americans have never heard of Kelley and that’s the way he wants it," the story said.

Other billionaires who have invested in Hawaii maintain considerably higher profiles, including Grove Farm owner and AOL co-founder Steve Case, David Murdock of developer Castle & Cooke, Lanai owner Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp., eBay and Ulu­pono Initiative founder Pierre Omid­yar and Japa­nese investor Gen­shiro Kawa­moto.