First Solar Facility in Mesa Sold to Apple Affiliate for $113m+

VIZZDA—November 5^th, 2013 — First Solar ($FSLR) has sold its Mesa manufacturing facility to an entity reportedly formed by Apple ($AAPL) for $113,576,875 or $84.66 per ft². The property is located at 3740 S. Signal Butte Road on the southwest corner of Signal Butte & Elliot Roads in Mesa. The facility is part of DMB Associates, Inc.’s 3,154-acre Eastmark masterplan community. First Solar acquired the property as 133 acres of land July 15^th, 2011 from DMB for $2 PSF, as their first phase manufacturing facility. 
 

Future site of Apple's Sapphire Glass Manufacturing Facility

An additional 129-acre second-phase parcel was leased from DMB with plans for a similar facility. In 2012 the subject building was constructed- featuring 1,341,492 SF of improvements per assessor calculation on an 83.17-acre site. First Solar had intended to use the facility to manufacture cadmium telluride photo-voltaic modules, but the site was never commissioned for manufacture and was instead used for operations, maintenance, & inventory. Financial filings indicate First Solar realized an $56.6M asset impairment for the Mesa facility in its third quarter filing with the SEC.  

On October 3^rd 2013, First Solar entered a purchase agreement to sell its Mesa assets and later split the 133 acre first phase parcel into a 50-acre land portion and 83 acre factory site. VIZZDA reported on October 8^th, 2013 that Coolidge, Arizona-based Bright International acquired the 50 acre land parcel at $1.60 PSF. The buyer for the 1.3m+ SF building is Platypus Development LLC- which although no direct entity linkage is made to Apple Corporate—all correspondence relating to the sale is in care of Phoenix, AZ-based law firm, Greenburg Traurig—an announcement made by Arizona’s Governor confirms the purchase.

By:

Hadden Schifman

Managing Director

Vizzda.com

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
Vizzda.com