ALBUQUERQUE-An out-of-state buyer has closed an off-market transaction for 1,135 acres on the city's west side. The exchange, trading for less than the $9-million ask, will be mapped out with commercial and residential space.
Olympia NM Land Investors LLC of Phoenix acquired the land million from a local owner, El Pino Ranch LLC. The tract, located where the future Northwest Loop Road will bisect Interstate 40, is zoned agriculture, but will likely end up as a mixed-use development with commercial and residential product, according to Bob Feinberg, senior vice president and principal with Grubb & Ellis/New Mexico Real Estate Advisors Inc. "We approached the seller to buy the property and were given a price," Feinberg tells GlobeSt.com.
Feinberg, the deal's sole broker, says there has been a lot of activity lately on the west side, where one recent deal brought the exchange of 705 acres that abut Olympia's land. "Right now, there's nothing out there except a lot of land," he says. "The last thing to walk on it was the dinosaurs."
Feinberg credits the heightened interest, in part, to 57,000 acres west of Albuquerque that are owned by Westland Development Co. of New Mexico. Westland consists of 6,000 shareholders, heirs to recipients of a 17th century land grant from Spain's monarchy. More recently, two developers, SunCal Cos. of Irvine, CA and Sedora Holdings owned by Las Vegas developer Jim Rhodes, are vying with the heirs for both outstanding shares and the land, which has been valued at close to $400 million.
Feinberg speculates the Westland situation will likely take several years to sort out. "Many of the buyers are piecing the land together in adjacent tracts," he says, "and will be able to turn the property and produce faster even if the Westland situation doesn't clear."
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