Desert Vista 100 LLC successfully bids $6.41 million for 40 acres of State Trust Land in Mesa, Pilot Travel Centers LLC successfully bids $900,000 for 6 acres in Gila Bend at Arizona State Land Department auctions; proceeds to benefit K-12 public education
PHOENIX – Desert Vista 100, LLC, successfully bid $6.41 million for a 40-acre parcel of State Trust Land west of the southwest corner of McKellips Road and Hawes Road, north of Loop 202, in Mesa, while Pilot Travel Centers successfully bid $900,000 for 6 acres of State Trust Land in Gila Bend, Arizona State Land Commissioner Lisa A. Atkins said.
Gilbert-based Desert Vista 100 made the successful bid, more than $1 million higher than the minimum bid, for the 40-acre parcel Dec. 6 at an Arizona State Land Department (ASLD) auction in Phoenix. The minimum bid was $5.34 million, the subject parcel’s appraised value.
The bid amount will be invested in the State’s Permanent Land Endowment Trust Fund (PLETF) at the Office of the Arizona State Treasurer for the benefit of K-12 public education, Commissioner Atkins said.
“This parcel is poised to be among the many productive developments occurring in the thriving East Valley,” Commissioner Atkins said. “An additional benefit of this successful auction is more revenue to be invested for our state’s K-12 public schools.”
At a separate ASLD auction Dec. 5 in Phoenix, Pilot Travel Centers LLC of Knoxville, Tenn., successfully bid $900,000, the subject parcel’s appraised value and the minimum allowable bid, for 6 acres east of Butterfield Trail (Interstate 8 Business Route) and south of State Route 85 in Gila Bend. The bid amount will be invested in the PLETF to benefit K-12 public education.
“As valuable as the purchase and development of State Trust Land is to urban centers, Arizona’s rural areas derive significant economic benefits from the sale of State Trust Land as well,” Commissioner Atkins said. “That is certainly true of this parcel on the east side of Gila Bend at the intersection of a state highway and an interstate highway business route.”
About State Trust land and auctions
K-12 public education is by far the largest of 13 Beneficiaries of Trust land managed by the Arizona State Land Department, whose mission since 1915 is to manage the assets of a multi-generational perpetual trust in alignment with the interests of the Beneficiaries and Arizona’s future.
All uses of the land and resources held in the Trust must benefit the Trust, a fact that distinguishes it from the way public land, such as parks or national forests, may be used or managed. While public use of Trust land is not prohibited, it is regulated to ensure protection of the land and its resources and compensation to the Beneficiaries for its use. Today the Arizona State Land Department pro-actively manages more than 9.2 million acres of Trust land, which is 13 percent of the land within the State of Arizona.
Information on upcoming auctions is available at www.azland.gov/upcoming-auctions.
