Lynd Fruit Farm has acquired a 74-acre property in Licking County, the family-owned orchard business said Friday in a Facebook post.
The farm paid $1.76 million for the site at 10503 North St. in Utica, according to the Licking County Auditor, and property records show the transaction closed Aug. 26. The sale came after a July auction conducted by Bauer Realty & Auctions, where Lynd submitted the top bid, per bidding records. At least 13 entities took part, and the bids were anonymous.
Lynd, founded in 1919, operates three apple orchards at its main farm on Morse Road in Pataskala.
The land is split into three parcels: a 63.9-acre tract of farmland and two 5-acre sites. One of the smaller parcels holds the property's only structure, a small ranch home that dates to 1960; Bauer Realty & Auctions described the other as suited to residential use.
The business did not detail specific plans, saying only that the site has strong potential for wetland and prairie restoration. In its post, Lynd said the aim is protecting the land from development while restoring it for local biodiversity, and described the property as having educational value and potential to supply seed and resources to others.
NBC4 reported that Licking County acreage has drawn development interest in recent years, citing data centers in New Albany and Intel's 2022 announcement of a $28 billion chip manufacturing project, an area sometimes described as a Silicon Heartland. Tension between tech development and the county's rural character surfaced in public response, with commenters cheering the farm's winning bid over a hypothetical developer, the report said.