Sunbelt Land Holdings LP of San Diego successfully bid $26.5 million Wednesday for approximately 93 acres of State Trust land near the Turf Paradise racetrack at an Arizona State Land Department auction.
The 93.257-acre subject parcel, located south and west of the southwest corner of 19th Avenue and Bell Road in Phoenix, is zoned for a planned community development. Turf Paradise is just east of the subject parcel, across 19th Avenue.
The opening bid was $18 million, the appraised value of the subject parcel.
Proceeds from the resulting sale will be placed in a permanent fund whose proceeds benefit Arizona’s K-12 public schools. The permanent fund is administered by the Arizona State Treasurer.
“The Land Department’s mission is to manage assets of a multi-generational perpetual Trust for both its beneficiaries and for the future of this State,” State Land Commissioner Lisa Atkins said. “The sale of mature assets such as this parcel is an example of that responsible, sustainable management, providing financial growth to Trust beneficiaries and contributing to economic growth for the people of Arizona.”
K-12 public education is by far the largest beneficiary 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 Trust’s 13 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 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.
