Historical Timeline/Milestones

1981
Future FIA co-founder, Charley Tarver, leads the creation of the nation’s first pooled timberland investment fund for pension plans in the trust department at the First National Bank of Atlanta

1984
Charley Tarver and others leave First Atlanta to form Wagner Southern Forest Investments, Inc., a registered investment advisor offering timberland investments

1986
Forest Investment Associates (FIA) is formed on May 9 by Charley Tarver and the other former principals of Wagner Southern

FIA gains its first separate account investor – a major corporate pension plan

1987
FIA gains a second separate account investor – a family trust

First timberland acquisition in the U.S. South (Georgia)

1995
First Allegheny hardwood timberland acquisition (Pennsylvania) 

1997
Began an employee stock purchase plan allowing all qualified employees to purchase equity in the company 

1998
Completed acquisition of 174,900 acres of Allegheny hardwood timberland in Pennsylvania and New York from International Paper Company

Opened Smethport, Pennsylvania field office

1999
$1 billion in assets under management – approximately 500,000 acres

2000
Opened Jackson, Mississippi field office

First timberland acquisition in the Pacific Northwest (Washington) 

2003
1 million acres under management

2004
$2 billion in assets under management

2005
First commingled fund, FIA Timber Partners, L.P., formed in a joint venture with Healey Timber, LLC

2006
Second commingled fund, FIA Timber Partners Special Situation Fund, L.P. formed

First Lake States (Wisconsin) hardwood acquisition  

FIA acquires 522,000 acres in the southeast from International Paper Company in its largest acquisition to date

2007
Opened field offices in Raleigh, North Carolina and Statesboro, Georgia

2008
Employees purchase Charley Tarver’s remaining equity interest in FIA upon his retirement

Michael Kelly becomes FIA’s second President

Purchased and began management of FIA’s first agricultural investment – citrus grove in Florida

FIA’s first wetlands mitigation bank, the Brick Road Mitigation Bank in Florida, becomes fully permitted and operational

FIA receives approval from an internationally recognized exchange for the first TIMO-managed carbon sequestration project on a hardwood property in Pennsylvania

$3 billion in assets under management

FIA Timber Growth Partners, L.P., FIA’s third pooled fund, focused on biological growth and capital appreciation, is formed

2009
FIA’s fourth pooled fund, FIA Timber Partners II, L.P. formed

2010
FIA named one of the “Focus 6” investment management firms that scored significantly better in key leadership and culture factors in a survey of 60 investment management firms conducted by the Focus Consulting Group

2 million acres under management

2011
FIA celebrates its 25th anniversary