Inside Tucson Business: Mon., Jan., 28, 2008

3,000 acres should be ready for auction in a year

By David Hatfield

If things stay on track, a year from now about 3,000 acres of state-owned land on Tucson's southeast side is supposed to be put up for auction and sold to the highest bidder for development. There will be answers to lots of questions before that happens.

Will there be enough water? What will it have in it? What about other infrastructure?

"This is exactly what I wanted to see happen," says Tucson City Councilwoman Shirley Scott, whose Ward 4 includes all of the 12,000 acres the Arizona State Land Department has turned over to developer Westcor to come up with a master plan. "Years from now people from other cities will look back on this and say ‘that's what we should have done'."

Mitch Stallard, vice president of development for Westcor, said his company will probably put $3 million into developing a master plan for the first phase that will go up for auction.

That's more money than the annual state land department's budget for land planning for the entire state, said Arizona State Land Commissioner Mark Winkleman.

FULL STORY: http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/doc478f91d3d9c1d395131497.txt