Fifty Acres Adjacent to First Solar Mesa Factory Sells

Tempe based First Solar has sold fifty acres of land adjacent to the 2012 built, 1.3 million square foot photovoltaic solar module manufacturing facility in Mesa. Coolidge, Arizona based Bright International Corporation purchased the lot for $3,484,811, which reflects $69,696 per acre or $1.60 per square foot.

The subject fifty-acre property was just a portion of the first of a two-phase manufacturing campus approved by Mesa Planning in 2011. The first solar property was to occupy 262 acres of the once 3,200 acre GM Proving Grounds, located at the southwest corner of Signal Butte & Elliot Roads.

DMB Associates picked up the Proving Grounds back in 2006 for $265m. A development agreement between the City of Mesa and First Solar was dated June 1^st, 2011. First Solar then purchased the 133 acres for phase-one on July 15^th, 2011, and entered into a lease agreement with DMB for the 129 acre phase-two property adjacent to the south. The phase-one factory was later built in 2012.

Daniel Alpers

Director of Civic & Municipal Projects
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