By Garrett Mitchell | The Arizona Republic
The possibility of a lengthy, expensive court fight over vacant land envisioned as the future downtown of Surprise has been avoided after a judge denied the city’s bid to take the property back from a private developer.
The square-mile of land surrounding Surprise’s gleaming civic buildings sits empty 18 years after the city struck a deal with a developer to transform the area of brush and mesquite trees, where cattle occasionally graze.
The city had sought to take back the land, arguing in court that the developer — an affiliate of Scottsdale-based Carefree Partners — had lost the rights to the property because of the amount of time the land has stayed undeveloped.
