Shea Offers $85 Mil for Arizona Land

PHOENIX – Shea Homes Inc., one of the largest builders in Arizona, has offered to buy for $85 million a huge parcel of land from a religious organization in the throes of bankruptcy.

Shea Homes has made an offer to pay the Baptist Foundation of Arizona for a 7,100-acre parcel in the far North Valley, northwest of 99th Avenue and Jomax Road in Phoenix. Shea hopes to develop the land into a master-planned community.

The land must be sold at public action through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and Shea’s offer will serve as the baseline bid. At least two other bidders are expected to participate in the auction, which will be held either in late October or early November.

Under the terms of the offer, Shea would pay $16 million in cash and the remaining $69 million over four years. With interest factored in, the defunct fund-raising group would receive about $110 million for the property.

The property, known as Pleasant Point, was assembled over the past three years and amounts to 10 square miles of land. The property is about 10 miles north of Del Webb’s newest retirement community and just south of Lake Pleasant.