N. Phoenix land sells at $1 million per acre
Desert Ridge gets bit of state property

Catherine Reagor
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 20, 2006 12:00 AM

A small piece of land in north Phoenix's popular Desert Ridge development sold for a record $1 million an acre Thursday at an Arizona state land auction.

Apartment builder Gray Development paid $33.45 million for the 32-acre site near the Loop 101 and 56th Street. It plans to build more than 800 high-end apartments and condominiums on the pricey land.

It was the first of five residential parcels in Desert Ridge that the Land Department plans to auction off this year.

"There's still tremendous demand for land," State Land Commissioner Mark Winkleman said.

Gray outbid Foursite Development for the property. The opening bid was $28.25 million.

Gray Development set the previous per-acre record for state land. Last year, the builder paid $780,000 an acre for another parcel in Desert Ridge.

Bruce Gray said construction of the first phase of a luxury multifamily project on its newest Desert Ridge site will start before the end of the year.

No information on prices or design is available for the project yet, but based on the cost of the land, condominiums could sell for $500,000 or higher.

Desert Ridge is an almost 6,000-acre project with a mix of residential, retail, commercial and resort developments.

The State Land Department has sold more than $550 million of trust land in Desert Ridge during the past few years.

Proceeds from Thursday's auction goes to Arizona's public schools. Under the state Constitution, money raised from trust land auctions is deposited in a trust fund; the schools receive income from that fund. A new state law earmarks some of that money for direct classroom use.

Arizona has more than 9 million acres of trust land, much of it in remote areas where it is leased to ranchers or other users. The most valuable parcels surround Phoenix and Tucson. The Land Department is planning its next big development in metro Phoenix, Superstition Vistas. That project covers 275 square miles from Apache Junction to Florence.