Michael Daly, the chief operating officer of Forest City Covington, Regent Sandra Begay-Campbell, representing the University of New Mexico Board of Regents and New Mexico State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons signed the final agreement that put 3,002 acres of state land at Mesa del Sol into the hands of the developer.
Photo (l. to r.): Michael Daly, Sandra Begay-Campbell and Patrick Lyons.
The agreement took several months of negotiations among the three entities to complete the deal. The University of New Mexico received a check for $9,536,852. Most of the money will go into a scholarship endowment for students. The rest will be used for expenses associated with the sale and land exchange.
The very complex agreement involved an exchange of UNM owned land near Cochiti for state-owned land at Mesa del Sol, at the southern edge of Albuquerque. The land is contained within the city limits. UNM then sold the land to the developer.
Chairman of the UNM Board of Regents Jamie Koch said, “This is a win-win for everyone. This is a major business venture for the University and there will be no downside. We receive money from this sale, we have retained 480 acres for a future campus facility and we will share in the profits as the area is development. I can’t find anything negative for UNM in the transaction.”
Forest City Covington will now move ahead with development activity. Daly said he was pleased that Advent Solar, a solar energy panel manufacturing company will be the first tenant. He said he hopes to make other announcements about tenants in the near future.
State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons said in a news release, “Mesa del Sol has been nothing but a dream for nearly 25 years. I commend the Regents for taking another step towards making it a reality. Lyons says Mesa del Sol is the largest parcel of undeveloped land under single ownership within a city’s limits in the nation, and one of the West’s most ambitious “new urbanism’ developments.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by kwentworth at June 23, 2006 02:10 PM