Staff Report
The UNM Board of Regents approved a deal Friday to develop a 1,300-acre Mesa del Sol property in the southeast mesa area.
Karen Wentworth, a spokeswoman for UNM, said the property is still in escrow and the University is hoping to finalize the deal by spring. Escrow is a deposit of funds, property, deeds or bonds into a third party account, which the second party cannot retrieve until a particular condition or obligation is met.
"The deal's not done," she said. "Right now it's just an outline of a plan."
The deal involves the State Land Office, UNM and Forest City Covington, an Ohio-based developing firm. Forest City will be in charge of all development on the land, but Board of Regents President Jamie Koch said in a news release the deal will make the University stronger financially.
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"This deal has the potential to earn substantial income for UNM," he said.
According to the release, the regents are acting as a mediator between the State Land Office and Forest City to make sure the land development is beneficial to the University.
The University will be switching property near the Cochiti Pueblo for the Mesa del Sol property, owned by the State Land Office. After that, UNM will pay the State Land Office $131,517 to make up the difference in appraised property value.
Forest City will then purchase the land from UNM for about $9.16 million and allow the University to share profits from the development of the first 3,000 acres of the property that are developed.
The University can receive 15 percent of the profits made by Forest City developers, who intend to sell the land to other individual developers. They can also receive 15 percent of the profits Forest City makes on its own developments.
According to the release, UNM might use 480 acres of the land to expand the campus.
