The Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico meeting in special session this morning has approved a complex land swap and development agreement involving the Mesa del Sol property in southeast Albuquerque. UNM President Louis Caldera said the agreement is a good one for the university.
“This deal has the potential to earn substantial income for UNM,” said Regent President Jamie Koch. “Everyone involved has gone out of their way to make it work, and the bottom line is it will make the university financially stronger as we expand to serve the next generations of New Mexico students.”
Details of the Argeement
The regents in a three way deal involving the State Land Office, Forest City Development Corporation and the university have agreed to proceed with a complex deal for developing the property.
The regents are acting in part as an enabling agent for the State Land Office, which has laws restricting the ways in which it can deal with private developers. This deal allows the land office to assure that trust land is developed in a way that will benefit one of its major educational trustees.
One element of the deal allows a land swap between the State Land Office and UNM. The State Land Office will receive land the university owns near Cochiti Pueblo and other areas in return for land the state owns in the Mesa del Sol development.
In addition, UNM will pay the State Land Office $131,517 to make up the difference in appraised values of the land. Then UNM will then sell the land to Forest City Development Corporation for $9,166,517 and the opportunity to participate in a share of the profits as the land is developed.
An initial part of the profit sharing arrangement involves the first 3,000 acres to be developed. Regents approved an agreement to allow the university to receive 15 percent of the land sale profits as Forest City sells individual parcels for development, but only after the developer, which is responsible for putting in infrastructure to allow development recovers its investment.
Under the agreement, UNM will also be entitled to 15 percent of the profits Forest City earns on property it keeps and develops for its own projects.
UNM retains 480 acres in the agreement that may eventually be used to develop a campus in the Mesa del Sol area.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627