9 Ways You Can Own Famous Landmarks

If you're lucky enough to see the Kentucky Derby – standing-room tickets for May's 146th running recently sold for $89 online – you can wager a few bucks and perhaps take away a small profit for your memories.

Louisville, Kentucky, USA - August 16, 2015:Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky with a statue of the Kentucky Derby winning horse, Barbaro.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you're lucky enough to see the Kentucky Derby – standing-room tickets for May's 146th running recently sold for $89 online – you can wager a few bucks and perhaps take away a small profit for your memories. But it's possible to play the Derby another way: as a shareholder. Had you wagered $1,000 a year ago on the owner of Churchill Downs, you'd have $1,487, for a return of nearly 49%. Not bad.

You also can own a piece of the storied Empire State Building, deemed one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers, which includes marvels such as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Panama Canal and the Chunnel from England to France. Maybe country music’s hallowed Grand Ole Opry strikes a chord. Or what about the world's most popular sports franchise?

For investors with a yen for a little history along with their returns, we've put together a list of investible famous landmarks and the nine publicly traded companies that own them. Overall, the bull market has been so grand for property and entertainment investors that if the stock collection below were an equal-weighted portfolio, it would have a one-year return of 20.9% and a five-year gain of 85.1%.

Not all of our picks have been big winners of late – some are being refurbished as landmarks and as investments, and might be more suited to bargain hunters comfortable with turnarounds. But all of these stocks will give you some bragging rights when you visit the landmark in question.

Disclaimer

Data is as of Nov. 28. Stocks listed in alphabetical order.

Jeffrey R. Kosnett
Senior Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Kosnett is the editor of Kiplinger's Investing for Income and writes the "Cash in Hand" column for Kiplinger's Personal Finance. He is an income-investing expert who covers bonds, real estate investment trusts, oil and gas income deals, dividend stocks and anything else that pays interest and dividends. He joined Kiplinger in 1981 after six years in newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun. He is a 1976 journalism graduate from the Medill School at Northwestern University and completed an executive program at the Carnegie-Mellon University business school in 1978.