Sale of Pinal County land could fetch $2 mil for city

by Gary Nelson The Arizona Republic Jul. 6, 2010 12:00 AM

Mesa is selling another slice of Pinal County farmland to an energy company that wants to build a solar-power array.

TransCanada Corp., whose home offices are in Calgary, Alberta, paid Mesa $10 million for 200 acres south of Coolidge in 2008. The company is building a natural-gas plant on that land.

The new sale is immediately south of there. TransCanada wants to use about 118 acres for a photovoltaic solar-generating plant that will crank out 20 megawatts of electricity.

The proposed sale price is $2.1 million.

Both tracts are part of a 1,456-acre farm Mesa bought in 1985 for $4.5 million, about $3,091 per acre. The proposed sale would fetch nearly $18,000 per acre.

Farmers still lease the land, east of Arizona 87, and use it mostly for growing cotton.

The sale is contingent on the Salt River Project accepting TransCanada's proposal to build the solar plant.

Mesa bought 11,000 acres in Pinal County 25 years ago to secure water rights for its booming population.

Mesa paid about $30 million for the property.

Mesa has diversified its water portfolio and no longer needs the Pinal land. The city has been selling it off piecemeal but is in no rush to dump it at recession-level prices.

Mesa bagged $1.1 million from Western Emulsions for 25 acres in 2009.

Last month, the city said money from Pinal County land sales could be used to replenish a fund that will be tapped for construction of a new stadium and practice fields for the Chicago Cubs, provided voters approve the project in November.

A resolution supporting the latest sale to TransCanada was on the consent agenda for Thursday night's City Council meeting with no opposition expected.



Sale of Pinal County land could fetch $2 mil for city