A timber investment firm recently purchased thousands of acres in five counties from Corbett Industries Inc., a broker said Wednesday.

The sale, which closed Feb. 11, encompassed 5,154 acres of timberland in an 18-tract portfolio, mainly in Pender and Duplin counties, but also in Brunswick, Columbus and Bladen counties.

The buyers were Georgia-based Cat Tail LLC and Zibelin LLC, represented by Advance Land and Timber LLC of Lexington, South Carolina.

They paid more than $7.3 million for the property.

“They [the 5,154 acres] don’t have a current ancillary value in our minds other than a timber or recreational type of investment,” said Jason Windham, broker with Wilmington-based commercial real estate firm Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Co. "The tracts that made up this sale were comprised mainly of managed pine plantations, and have been that way for many years."

Corbett Industries Inc. has retained and continues to market more than 10,000 acres (of the 17,000 put up for sale in 2018) throughout southeastern North Carolina that company officials consider to have significant development potential, Windham said.

Since 2018, the firm had sold 2,100 other acres of timberland throughout Pender, Duplin, Brunswick and Bladen counties before the 18-tract portfolio was put together.

And Corbett Industries still has a large amount of land in New Hanover County up for sale.

"We have 840-acre property, known as the Gore Tract, in northern New Hanover County that obviously has a tremendous amount of development potential between I-140 and Sidbury Road," Windham said.

That property has garnered a lot of interest.

"I think a developer is going to have to work hand-in-hand with CFPUA, county planners and county leaders on infrastructure [water and sewer mainly] and funding for that infrastructure in the northern part of the county," Windham said.

Teddy Davis, the president of Corbett Industries, said Wednesday, "On behalf of Corbett Industries, we are incredibly grateful for the hard work and wonderful job that Jason Windham has done."