Oro Valley, Arizona — Land Advisors Organization (LAO) Closed on $7.721 million in residential land deals in northwest Tucson since the start of 2019.

Pulte Home Company plans to plat for development 45 acres of land in Oro Valley at Rancho Vistoso. The land drew a sale price of $4.9 million ($108,888 per acre) in this all cash transaction. The Seller was a group of private investors doing business as VPII Loan, LLC and ML Manager, LLC of Phoenix.

Pulte plans to plat the parcels for a mixture of production lot sizes.

Will White and John Carroll with Land Advisors Organization (LAO) handled the transaction.

This is the same seller who sold 190 acres in October to a New York-based land investment REIT, JEN Arizona 32, LLC and affiliate TerraWest Communities (Mike Jesberger), Blocks 5H and 5I at Rancho Vistoso Neighborhood 5 in Oro Valley sold for $6.3 million. The transaction was also negotiated by LAO.

“This is a great location in the project. The homebuilder opportunities in Rancho Vistoso have become extremely limited and the production has been extremely strong,” said White. “We don’t expect future lot opportunities to be available for long up there and most are sold before we actually get out to market with them. Vistoso has extremely strong pricing power and demand and that really has been the driver.”

In a separate transaction, Mattamy Homes purchased 26 finished lots from Pusch Ridge Christian Academy, beneficiary of Cottonwood Properties (David Mehl, manager) at Blue Agave II in Dove Mountain. The lots are 70X130 and sold for $108,500 per lot, or $2.821 million.

The lots are contiguous to Mattamy’s current Blue Agave I subdivision with 192 lots purchased in 2016 when finished lot prices were $74,479 per lot.

Will White and John Carroll with Land Advisors Organization (LAO) also handled this transaction

“Dove Mountain continues to offer a great lot delivery program for the master-plan’s builders, allowing them to have a steady stream of lots on time,” White stated.  “The project currently is home to several homebuilders and is experiencing strong activity as we head into 2019. The northwest portion of the community has some of the best golf/desert frontage parcels in the northwest area of Tucson and the amazing views that come with them. We are expecting the coming year to be extremely active in Dove Mountain.”

For more information White and Carroll should be reached at 520.514.7454.

To learn more, see RED Comp #6475 and #6479.

Marana, Arizona – Northwest Fire District (NWFD) knowing time is of the essence in an emergency has purchased two new sites for stations: a 2.76-acre parcel in Dove Mountain for $735,781 ($6.12 PSF) and a 1.48-acre lot at Gladden Farms for $400,00 ($6.20 PSF) both in Marana, Arizona.

“Northwest Fire District’s stations are strategically located throughout the District to ensure help arrives as quickly as possible,” Dugger Hughes, Deputy Chief, Logistics of Northwest Fire told us.  “The location of each fire station is based on an assessment of the growing community’s specific risks, call loads and types, and areas that offer rapid responses to handle these identified risks.”

The last station built in the district was constructed in 2010 at Tangerine and Thornydale, 12095 North Thornydale Road in Marana, Station #39. With the tremendous growth in residences in the northwest, additional stations are now needed to maintain or improve services, as well as to reduce response times and could have a big impact on Marana.

A third new station is planned for Twin Peaks and I-10 on 2.5 acres of land that was donated to the District and will follow the relocation of Station #37 to the Dove Mountain site and construction of the new Gladden Farms station.

NWFD also has plans to construct a new 13,500-square-foot Administration Building west of I-10 adjacent to its current training center at 5125 W Camino de Fuego in Marana where it owns 12-acres. Anticipated delivery of this building is early Summer 2018.

The expenditures for these projects are made possible through bonds approved by voters last fall.

Core Construction Company of Tucson has been selected for all of these projects to act as General Contractor.

Will White with Land Advisors Organization in Tucson handled the transactions with associate, John Carroll on both the Gladden Farms and Dove Mountain sites. The seller at Gladden Farms was Crown West Realty (Dean Wingert, member) and Tortolita Properties, LLC (Art Powell, member) at Dove Mountain.

For more information, White and Carroll can be reached at 520.514.7454.

To learn more, see RED Comp #5430

TUCSON, Arizona — It’s been 16 years since longtime real estate broker, Will White of the Land Advisors Organization (LAO) has lead the Tucson office, providing strategic direction for the sale and marketing of residential land and working closely with homebuilders, assembling a record of success selling and marketing the region’s top master planned communities. He is known for his role in high-profile, high-price land deals, and has negotiated the sale of more than 5,000 finished / platted lots in the Tucson metro area in the past 36 months.

We recently sat down with White to get his thoughts on whether or not there is a resurgence of master planned communities (MPCs) in Tucson.

Q: It seems like most of the activity these days is in the well-located MPCs in Tucson.  Is this true, and if so, why?               

That is definitely the case!  2017 is off to a great start, and the heart of it begins in Tucson’s master-planned communities.

From a consumer perspective, these well-located MPCs offer new amenities and the community ‘feel’ that families covet.  The communities that are seeing the best sales this year – Gladden Farms, La Estancia, Dove Mountain and Saguaro Bloom – also have, in most cases, multiple  new homebuilders selling at the same time. The result is the creation of synergies that lift community marketing efforts and bring bigger traffic volumes to these projects.

Homebuilders that were proactive in locating (lot) inventory in these communities in 2015-2016 are reaping the benefits today – and are well-positioned for the future.

Q: Is this a new phenomenon, or has it always been this way?

The MPC has historically been a great concept in Tucson. It provides a lifestyle and a sense of place for consumers, and for the homebuilders, it has traditionally been the preferred source of continual lot supply.

That said, it wasn’t always this way.  During the recent down-cycle we saw more homebuilders concerned about going head-to-head with their competitors in the same community. Consequently, we saw homebuilders purchase larger positions in these projects to avoid competition and to secure lot inventory.

Thankfully, that position appears to have softened.  We are now seeing a comfort level in that homebuilders recognize they can segment and market together in these projects. They also continue to see these communities as great places to strategically and efficiently secure lot inventory.  This is a vital concept, as in the Tucson market it has become increasingly difficult to get a multi-year lot pipeline secured.

Q: Are the homebuilders going to MPCs because of desirability, or because that is where the lots are?  In other words, is this because of design or circumstance?

It is actually both.  Location is always a huge component of success in homebuilding, and the most successful MPC’s are located in the areas that consumers currently prefer, specifically to the northwest and to the southeast/Vail. Securing lots in these desirable areas is clearly a well-designed (and executed) strategy.

Further, MPCs have traditionally been designed to offer homebuilders and homebuyers a certain level of desirability that they can’t get in stand-alone opportunities.  Therefore, homebuilders moving into these MPCs is by design.

Unfortunately, circumstances have led us to have a historic situation regarding our low level of community counts and available, developable lots. The metro areas MPC’s are an excellent source of “shovel ready” lots that can be built in the shortest length of time. This concept, coupled with the fact that the newer projects in town are well located and offer amenities that are appealing to homebuyers, make it a “win-win” scenario.  Therefore, a part of the equation is homebuilders need to go where the lots are.

Q: What happens if someone wants to develop their own community?  Is this a viable option?

An obvious response to the challenge of acquiring lots often starts with the notion of a company developing their own community.  It makes sense on the surface; land is ‘locked in’ at today’s prices, the developer would have complete control over the lot supply, and they could control the overall composition of the community.

Unfortunately, this alternative quickly breaks down for most companies, largely due to the number of moving parts.  The economics of the land deal must work. Obtaining zoning and entitlements can take anywhere from months to several years.  Then comes the funding and construction of new infrastructure.  This is all before homes can be built, yet the risk, financial exposure, and elapsed time are present throughout.

This isn’t to say that developing a new project isn’t an option.  It is just a daunting challenge when the alternative is to immediately secure lots in MPCs which already have major infrastructure and entitlements in place, not to mention amenities, recreation, schools, etc. It is often the path of least resistance.

Q: Has this strategy worked out for the homebuilders? Is existing almost exclusively in MPCs the right strategy?

I tend to look at it this way: If someone wants to continue to be a homebuilder in Tucson, they need lots.  As there are very few options available, if they want lots, then they need to be in an MPC.

Has this strategy worked? There are a handful of homebuilders that have been proactive in this manner over the past 12-24 months in Tucson. You can look at the active master-planned communities and identify them. As the lot inventory in Tucson is so tight, I would say that these builders are in better shape from a lot pipeline standpoint than their competition.

This strategy has also allowed builders to quickly build market share.  Some of the most active homebuilders in Tucson now have larger market shares than they have ever had in Tucson. From all indications we are getting, virtually all the builders are projecting growth for their Tucson divisions. Every homebuilder here has different reasons to need to buy land right now, but the main point is this: they all need to buy land in order to not only grow, but also to survive as a Tucson homebuilder.

Q: Will this trend continue for the foreseeable future?

Yes. Not only do I not see it changing, I see it gaining momentum.  Why? We are seeing a very good situation in Tucson right now. The 2017 selling season has been very good through April and we expect this to continue. The best performances this year have come from the areas’ existing larger MPC’s. As these communities continue to perform well, the homebuilders will look to / want to continue to be a part of that success.

The developers of these communities are doing a great job in promoting the communities, adding value for the homebuilders, and providing a great lifestyle for homebuyers. As the lot supply situation tightens, these communities will continue to be the ‘go-to’ spot for the builders.

Land Advisors Organization employs a collaborative brokerage model with offices located in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, Texas, Utah and Washington. To reach Will White directly, call 520.514.7454 or at wwhite@landadvisors.com.