The Latter-Day Charades For Mesa City Manager Chris Brady: Water-Boy
14 years into his job as the City of Mesa's Chief Executive Officer, we're getting some new revelations for what's next: ENVISION A PIPE “It’s our next pocket of water,’’ City Manager Chris Brady said. “It’s going to be our lifeline for the future expansion of southeast Mesa.’’
carry water for (someone)
1. To serve, assist, or perform menial or difficult tasks for some person, group, or organization
What does a deceitful person carry in one hand while carrying water in the other?
For the big deal to spend $200,000,000 of Mesa taxpayers' money in a Field of Schemes to finance Sloan Park, a stadium here in Mesa for the Billionaire-Ricketts Family, owners of the Chicago Cub's sport franchise, City Manager Chris Brady held up a defiant fist when questioned over the terms of pay-off of the public debt obligations. He was joined by former mayor Scott Smith . . . city assets would be sold-off: Water-Rights on 11,444 acres of land. Brady justified that by stating that the city had 'plenty of water' in August 2019. Now the story has changed
Let's crack open this latter-day charade
City envisions a $66M pipe as a lifeline to SE Mesa
42" Water Main Installation on the Mesa's Elliot Road Tech Corridor, from Ellsworth to Signal Butte where the Signal Butte Water Treatment Plant is located - Apple (100% renewable energy from solar) and one end and Google Global Data Center at other). Notice there is already a fire station and LDS church on what looks like barren land.
2
The West Is Trading Water for Cash. The Water Is Running Out
Desert farmers along the Colorado River are striking lucrative deals with big cities. But not everyone comes out a winner.
Water is the most precious commodity here in the Desert
It can be bought and sold or traded on the private equity market - all with higher prices all the time the hotter and drier our so-called 'stable environment' gets.
City envisions a $66M pipe as a lifeline to SE Mesa
By Jim Walsh, Tribune Staff Writer
"A deal with the Gila River Indian Community could deliver billions of gallons of drinking water to southeast Mesa, fueling the area’s development in exchange for billions of gallons in effluent. . .
While the deal would help both parties – with the Native American community receiving water for irrigating crops and Mesa receiving drinking water at a cut-rate price – there is a catch.
HERE'S HOW AN EARLIER DEAL WENT DOWN > Total Charade!
Here's how the deal - with few financial details disclosed - went down last month with Mayor John Giles signing off on it in a staged-for-public-consumption photo opp at the Mesa City Council Meeting on 19 August 2019 - $94,000,000 Paid in Full
City Manager Chris Brady is behind the foam core poster board holding it up. The sale was promoted as a $94,000,000 Pay-Off, but city officials never said who paid the low-ball sell-off to water-rights on 11,442 acres.
DETAILS:Titles changed hands over-time - first to Pinal Land Holdings and ultimately to Saints Holdings LLC - you can watch an edited video of the occasion of the sell-off that was turned into an escrow account . . .clips of cheering baseball fans were inserted with a voice-over by Mesa Mayor John Giles. . .
More than 5 years ago, this LAND DEAL was one of the largest in Mesa's history.
We didn't know more about it then.
Mesa Seals $135 Million Land Deal
Posted on
by Kristian Seemeyer
When people talk, listen completely.
Most people never listen.
- Ernest Hemingway
The "land deal" land sale proceeds will boost the City’s Economic Investment Fund, financing in part projects such as: Sloan Park, The Cubs new Spring Training facility and the so-called then "Higher Education Initiative". We're talking 11,400 acres, folks!
The vast tracts of land were know back then as The Mesa Water Farm.
THIS IS WHAT THAT $135M LAND DEAL - OR LAND SWINDLE OR STEAL?? - FOR THEIR VISION ON THE 11,447 ACRES THAT WERE ONCE THE MESA WATER FARM ...
Nice buy: $135M 11,400+ ACRES
Watch where this story goes and note that the buyer in 2012, a company in Scottsdale, is now called Saints Holdings Company. They agreed to buy the land in three 5-year phases.
Let's do some numbers first: a recent city auction for 132 acres, without water rights, went for $21.1M (that's $5M above the appraised price) . . .or $159,848 per acre.
"According to Natalie Lewis, assistant to city manager Chris Brady, and also lead negotiator on the deal, Mesa purchased the land in 1985 for more than $29 million for its water rights to create a water farm.
Eventually, the city found more cost-effective means to provide the city water.
OH REALLY? DID THEY? The city expected it would take 20 years or more to sell the land. But two years ago, PLH approached the city with interest in purchasing the land in phases over five years.
PHOENIX—A deal for nearly $135 million and 11,400 acres was struck between the city of Mesa and Scottsdale-based Pinal Land Holdings LLC (PLH). The land, to be purchased by PLH in three phases, is located between Coolidge and Eloy, making it an extremely attractive purchase for an entity interested in developing central Arizona. The property is currently used as farmland.“We chose this site for many reasons including the existing infrastructure, the current and planned transportation access and the existing sense of community born through its agricultural heritage. This really and truly is the center of Arizona,” said Jackob Andersen, PLH president. . . "
WHO IS JACKOB ANDERSEN?
Jackob Andersen - President/CEO
Saint Holdings | LinkedIn
Having molded his career over 12 years in the London real estate market, Andersen founded Saint Holdings in 2005 in Arizona, USA and has selectively . . .
. . . if readers of this blog are curious what the Saint's holding companies are planning to create between Phoenix and Tucson around Casa Grande and Coolidge and Florence >
"a new "inland port", much similar to the same thing in-the-works in Utah. . . it certainly looks likes they are tending to now privatize water-rights just when a federal Drought Emergency Contingency Plan has been activated,
When big deals like the sale of 'obsolete water-rights' on thousands of acres that would be just dirt without it, there's always scandals that surface somehow taking a cue from an earlier extract:
The Arizona Corporation Commission’s desire for consolidation of the highly-fragmented water utility industry in Arizona and their new policy guidelines that support and incent such consolidation,
the stage is well set for additional acquisitions,.. "
SAINTS HOLDINGS LLC
Website: Saint Holdings Twitter: @SaintHoldingsSaint Holdings is a multi-faceted real estate investment and development company with holdings in industrial, land, multifamily residential, and agriculture.
"Global Water Resources has signed agreements with Saint Holdings that will result in providing water services to Saint Holding’s Inland Port Arizona, where @nikolamotor is constructing their new facility."
Here's how the deal - with few financial details disclosed - went down last month with Mayor John Giles signing off on it in a staged-for-public-consumption photo opp at the Mesa City Council Meeting on 19 August 2019 - $94,000,000 Paid in Full
DETAILS:Titles changed hands over-time - first to Pinal Land Holdings and ultimately to Saints Holdings LLC - you can watch an edited video of the occasion of the sell-off that was turned into an escrow account . . .clips of cheering baseball fans were inserted with a voice-over by Mesa Mayor John Giles. . . 
PHOENIX—A deal for nearly $135 million and 11,400 acres was struck between the city of Mesa and Scottsdale-based Pinal Land Holdings LLC (PLH). 
WHO IS JACKOB ANDERSEN? 
