Hamilton County is buying almost 2,100 acres at the McDonald Farm in Sale Creek for $16 million, sources said.
County Mayor Jim Coppinger, who has been meeting with owner representative Frank McDonald Jr., is set to lay out details of the purchase to the County Commission on Wednesday morning.
With Enterprise South and Centre South industrial parks filling up, the county is mainly eyeing the huge tract for a new industrial park.
However, there could be some other uses as well at the sprawling tract that spills over into adjacent Rhea County (500 acres).
The property includes the McDonald family homeplace, five major barns and many other outbuildings. It has been in the hands of the McDonalds since the earliest days of the county.
Roy McDonald, who started the Home Stores grocery chain and the Chattanooga Free Press (later News-Free Press), inherited the farm and many family and newspaper gatherings were held there over the years. Some of the McDonalds are buried there.
At one time there were 400 cows at the farm that supplied milk for the Home Stores. The farm has gone out of production in recent years.
The ownership went into shares for his children after Roy McDonald's death and is now held by the Frank McDonald family, the Exum family, the Anderson family and the Reinke family.
Frank McDonald Jr. has been overseeing the farm in recent years and he dealt directly with County Mayor Coppinger.