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."
Another buy-out for The Arizona Republic? USA Today, Gannett, GateHouse Media > and now another merger New Media Investment Group! Take a look at what Mike Reed has to say about their 'new approach' to local newspapers Nobody likes them.... Whether the merger would help combat the erosion of reporting jobs in America or accelerate it quickly became a matter of intense debate in the journalism industry, which remains mired in a two-decade-long search for a sustainable business model for local news.
__________________________________________________________________________________ Let's put that group's stock performance on the radar first - for fast traders Ticker News Stock in the Trader’s Radar: New Media Investment Group Inc. (NEWM)
"If you are considering getting into the day trading or penny stock market, it’s a legitimate and profitable method for making a living. Every good investor knows that in order to make money on any investment, you must first understand all aspects of it, so let’s look at daily change, stock price movement in some particular time frame, volatility update, performance indicators and technical analysis and analyst rating . . .
New Media Investment Group Inc. (NEWM) Stock Price Movement in past 50 Days period and 52-Week period
New Media Investment Group Inc. (NEWM) stock demonstrated 25.56% move opposition to 12-month low and unveiled a move of -45.29% versus to 12-month high. The recent trading activity has given its price a change of -9.47% to its 50 Day High and 22.62% move versus to its 50 Day Low. Prices of commodities, securities and stocks fluctuate frequently, recording highest and lowest figures at different points of time in the market.
New Media Investment Group Inc. (NEWM) Stock Past Performance
New Media Investment Group Inc. (NEWM) stock revealed -3.37% return for the recent month and disclosed -13.52% return in 3-month period. The stock grabbed -16.92% return over last 6-months and -44.82% return in yearly time period. To measure stock performance since start of the year, it resulted a change of -23.16%. Past performance shows you the fund’s track record, but do remember that past performance is not an indication of future performance. Read the historical performance of the stock critically and make sure to take into account both long- and short-term performance. Past performance is just one piece of the puzzle when evaluating investments . . Volatility in Focus: Volatility measures the risk of a security. It is used in option pricing formula to gauge the fluctuations in the returns of the underlying assets.
The stock unfolded volatility at 4.39% during a week and it has been swapped around 4.37% over a month. Volatility is a rate at which the price of a security increases or decreases for a given set of returns. . . Overbought and Oversold levels
The stock has RSI reading of 56.56. RSI gives an indication of the impending reversals or reaction in price of a security. RSI moves in the range of 0 and 100. So an RSI of 0 means that the stock price has fallen in all of the 14 trading days. Similarly, an RSI of 100 means that the stock price has risen in all of the 14 trading days. . . Analyst Watch:
Analysts have assigned their consensus opinion on this stock with rating of 1 on scale of 1 to 5. 1 or 2 =>Buy view 4 or 5 => Sell opinion. 3 =>Hold. Analysts’ recommendations are the fountainhead of equity research reports and should be used in tangent with proprietary research and investment methodologies in order to make investment decisions.
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Arizona Republic Reporters, Staffers Vote To Form A Union
"It’s official: The state’s largest newspaper, The Arizona Republic, has voted to unionize. The 64-30 vote came despite a series of memos written by management at the Arizona Republic to staffers eligible to join the NewsGuild, a labor union for journalists in North America, that organizing in that way could have negative implications.
That included arguments that Gannett, as the corporate owner, has only so much it is willing to spend — and that the cost of any new benefit could result in the loss of another one. . .
“This is a historic decision to protect local journalism,” said consumer reporter and member of the organizing committee Rebekah Sanders in a press release. “We have sent a powerful message to Gannett that we expect dignified layoff severance, fair wages and a voice in the decisions that affect our future.” . . Thursday's vote does not actually gain the newsroom staffers anything beyond the right to collectively bargain with management. "I think there's a general belief that now the hard work starts," Pitzl said. Unlike efforts to unionize some other businesses, the impetus had less to do with salaries than trying to provide some protection to existing workers against layoffs. That has taken on additional importance following the announcement that Gannett was going to be purchased by GateHouse Media to form a $1.4 billion corporation. . . The only GateHouse operation in Arizona is the Arizona Capitol Times, which is not a union shop.
Mesa-native and 'Family-Guy' Paul D. Peterson has been caught, apprehended and turned over to The Feds for the multiple-charges engaged in human trafficking, that have received the most media attention. However, his elected job as the Maricopa County Assessor poses more latter-day temptations than the $2.7M in his subpoenaed bank records.
Thanks to some very decent investigative reporting recently published two days ago by Arizona Republic news staff Jessica Boehm and Robert Anglen, we now know more details about some of his dealings in real estate:
County supervisors may suspend Paul Petersen after adoption scheme arrest
The following are selected extracts for your informed interest
> Petersen has been in jail since Oct. 8. And an investigation by The Arizona Republic showed he has spent little time at the Assessor's Office in the past year.
> Petersen badged into the parking garage for county government workers 53 times from Jan. 1 through Oct. 2, 2019, county records show. That's less than 30% of the available workdays.Most days that he was in the office, he spent about four hours there, records show. Petersen's taxpayer-funded salary is about $77,000 per year.
> In regards to the human trafficking charges, Petersen has a new attorney, Kurt Altman who said Petersen has no intention of resigning from his elected position.
Altman said the charges against Petersen are allegations, and no evidence has yet been presented in court. . .
"Although sometimes forgotten, our system of criminal justice is still one in which the accused is innocent until proven guilty," he said. "To date, there has been no proof of anything.”
Petersen's previous attorney Matt Long said earlier this week that it was "troubling" that attorneys and politicians, who have sworn to protect the U.S. Constitution, are calling for Petersen to resign.
Asked to respond, Gates said, "I absolutely agree that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but that's not what we're talking about. We're not discussing the particulars of the case. We're focused on the operations of the Assessor's Office moving forward and we're focused on the best interest of the 4.5 million residents of Marciopa County."
OK Here are some new 'revelations' connected with real estate dealings in both Arizona and Utah
Business partner posted bail
> "According to court documents, Petersen has posted his $500,000 bail in Arizona. However, he remains in federal custody, according to the Arizona Attorney General's Office.
According to court records, Mesa resident Lars Christensen, who has businessand real estate ties to Petersen, wired the $500,000 bail on Oct. 11.
> Christensen's marketing company, Touchpoint Promotions, operated out of the same Mesa address Petersen used for an adoption agency he operated called Adoption Advocate Associates, LLC.
> Petersen formed the company in 2015 and terminated it in March 2019.
> Records show the Lars Christensen Trust was the lender for the Utah house authorities says Petersen used in the adoption scheme.
> Property records show in 2017 that Petersen purchased a home on Florlita Avenue in West Valley City, Utah.
> Christensen lives in Mesa.
> He is listed in corporation filings as the director of TBX Express Corp., an interstate freight shipping business with five trucks based on Power Road in Mesa.
> Christensen and Petersen are also associated with an investment business, corporation records show.
> Christensen did not return repeated phone messages last week or respond to a written request left at his home near Las Sendas Golf Club.
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? 
