High-End Home Builder Blandford Plunks-Down $21.1M For 132-Acre Plot in City of Mesa Land Auction

The first question is did they get "punked" by the build-up of all the hype and suspense created by all the write-ups from the Times Media Group-owned East Valley Tribune staff writer Jim Walsh? The City of Mesa's coffers were enriched by a 20% premium of about $5M more than the degraded land-value appraisal for $15.6M at the same time rabble-rousing Red Mountain residents want a promised park per the original intentions. . . or is it restricted to industrial use?

Like they say in real estate lingo "Let the buyer beware". Or might it be that at some point-in-time there could be that buyer's remorse after the property transfer is a done deal
What strikes your MesaZona blogger the most in all the lines in Walsh's reporting for more than  a now are the direct quotes from Mesa Mayor John Giles - an "ambulance-chaser" in a private law practice - stating his views and preferences on real estate development for luxury housing. 

There might just a little something suspicious about that other than the fact that he could be "the mouthpiece" made available to East Valley Tribune writer Jim Walsh, stating time-and-time again that the mayor has made it clear [using a fancy word not in his usual vocabulary] the he expects a "Las Sendas-esque" development. Giles is opposed on that matter not only by Red Mountain residents but by two other high-powered city officials, one the city's own Director of Economic Development.*

Simply put, Mayor John Giles has veered off his track to take the public risk to step into "a pile of dirt" way beyond either his professional qualifications as a personal accident attorney in private practice or his duties and responsibilities while holding public office - taking the side of private real estate developers over nearby residents. 
Can he come out "clean"????   
The 132-acre "pristine" parcel can be located in northeast Mesa at the center top of this image from the City of Mesa.
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Let's get back to that $5M windfall into the City of Mesa's coffers from the bidding-up of the winning proffer from Blandford Homes in a 'dueling" contest with Toll Brothers at the auction
Blandford bid exceeds Mesa’s hopes for desert tract

By Jim Walsh, Tribune Staff Writer | East Valley Tribune 25 March 2019

"The suspense built while the price tag soared for a controversial but beautiful tract of pristine land in northeast Mesa as two dueling developers raised their [bid] boards repeatedly in $50,000 increments to up the ante . . . "

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Here's a link to an uploaded stream of the action at the land auction from a story in https://www.azcentral.com 

Land once set aside for Mesa regional park auctioned to luxury ...

AZCentral.com-Mar 22, 2019

Land once set aside for Mesa regional park auctioned to luxury homebuilder for .... "This is beautiful pristine desert," Giles recently told The Arizona Republic

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*Giles is also opposed by former District 3 Mesa City Councilmember Dennis Kavanaugh when the city made a promise in 1998 for a park on the 132-acre parcel. He texted this message to EVT writer Jim Walsh

"I believe for elected officials to maintain credibility with the public, that promises made need to be promises kept"