Our History
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Southern Pine Plantations was founded in 1984 by Benjamin W. Griffith III. The original office was located in
Juliette, Georgia in the building made famous as the Whistle Stop Cafe in the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes".
Today SPP is headquartered in Macon, Georgia with offices in Florida, Texas, and Montana. Since the beginning, SPP's business has been rooted in timberland. Twenty-five years ago, 500 acres was a typical transaction, today it may be 50,000 acres or even 500,000 acres. No matter the size, our belief in the value of this type of land has remained the same. We believe in timberland as a growing asset, while also recognizing all the environmental and social benefits it provides. We now own and manage over 150,000 acres in Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, and Montana. These properties provide not only timber, but also clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and carbon sequestration. These properties are not marketed for sale but instead are under long-term management. In 2003, we separated our core timberland business from our commercial, residential and mineral development business. Southern Pine Plantations Commercial Group moved from the company headquarters into an office nearby. Today the Timberland Group (led by Pat Patton) and the Commercial Group (led by Travis Griffith) function as separate companies though both are still guided by Mr. Griffith. In 2008, the second generation of the Griffith Family joined the company, helping transform and grow our business into the future. Looking forward, technology and the global shift in environmental thinking are creating new opportunities in natural resources. Biofuels, carbon sequestration/ global climate change, new harvesting and utilization technologies, wetland mitigation, wind energy and solar energy are some of the new frontiers in resource management that will evolve as timberland matures as an asset class. However, even with all the "new" possibilities, the same "old" basic fundamentals of supply and demand are still the foundation of timberland investment. Our population continues to increase, but we are not making any more land! The following is a list of recent timber-related transactions in which Southern Pine Plantations, Inc or one of its related entities was the buyer over the past 10 years:
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