By Katie Surma, Anne Mickey and Jamie Fields | Arizona Republic
Among the 9.2 million acres that the Arizona State Land Department owns, no parcel was more valuable than the 134-acre site in northeast Scottsdale that is now being developed by the real estate arm of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.
That was the conclusion of the Land Department’s commissioner in 2017 as the state prepared to sell the parcel.
Land in the north Scottsdale area had been selling for more than $900,000 an acre, on average. The Land Department had sold one nearby 12-acre site for more than $1.3 million an acre.