Denver-based Farmland Partners announced it has closed on a deal to acquire 118 farms totaling 22,100 acres surrounding Paris, Illinois for a total consideration of $197 million from an unnamed seller. Under the finalized terms of the deal, Farmland Partners has paid $50 million in cash and $147 million of limited partnership preferred operating partnership interest for the acquisition.

“This transformative transaction makes FPI one of the largest owners of farmland in the Midwestern United States,” Farmland Partners CEO Paul Pittman said in a company release. “The increased scale of our operations will be reflected on our balance sheet and in our revenue, and the substantial number of new operators will add value to our volume purchasing program by increasing the total acreage operated by our tenants.”

This acquisition, which increases Farmland Partners’ portfolio from 74,400, to nearly 100,000 acres, was originally announced by the company in November of last year. As demonstrated by Farmland Partners’ third quarter report last year, Farmland Partners saw significant growth in 2015 in terms of revenues, profitability, farmland assets, and dividends paid to shareholders. The company’s CEO Paul Pittman explained at the time, “We have built the company infrastructure so we can continue to increase scale without materially increasing SG&A… We run a very efficient business model with only 12 employees.”

The company had stated that once the deal was successfully closed, it intends to use the properties acquired through the transaction as collateral for additional secured debt, which it expects to provide another $100 million of capital for further acquisitions, many of which have been targeted and are in the process of due diligence.

In addition, upon announcing the deal last year, Farmland Partners stated that although there can be no definitive assurances, based on the expected revenue from this transaction and future planned acquisitions that may be gained through the secured debt the deal will provide, the company is expecting this transaction to be accretive to the company’s shares by approximately $0.10.