CASA GRANDE, AZ-Vermaland LLC, a land banking and development company in Phoenix, has acquired 4,000 acres in La Osa Ranch. The Phoenix based buyer had closed on 4,000 acres in 2012, meaning it now holds 8,000 acres of raw land originally envisioned as a large, master-planned community.
Vermaland CEO Kuldip Verma tells GlobeSt.com that he'd been tracking the acreage for some time; during the mid-2000s, several million dollars had been spent on studies determining the best use for the land midway between Tucson and Phoenix.
Then the bottom of the market dropped out. "The lenders got the property back and it became a difficult project to carry on," says Verma. Vermaland acquird the land from two different sellers, and while Verma declined to discuss how much was paid for the land, he did say that at the peak of the cycle the property was valued at approximately $300 million.
Verma says the La Osa acreage is one of the largest pieces of land in the Southeast Valley; he calls the acquisition a "once in a lifetime opportunity." He points out that there is plenty of value in raw land right now, though land prices are moving north, especially those already platted and envisioned as master planned communities.
In addition, "only 17% of land in Arizona is private land," Verma points out. "The rest is federal and state land." Though there are indeed huge tracts of land throughout the state, it can't be developed. This factor runs into another one – the Phoenix-are population is growing.
"We're seeing it grow about 3% to 3.5% a year," Verma comments. "The population doubles every 20 years or so. With that growth, everything is expanding outward."
The original plans for La Osa involved 30,000 residential lots and 1,000 acres of commercial development, along with 2,000 acres of green and open space. Verma plans to continue in that vein, though right now there is little in the way of infrastructure on the property. As such, "we're just trying to get our arms around the project, to see what needs to be done," he says.
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