The Story:
A huge swath of land on the Western edge of metro Phoenix has drawn an $80 million investment from Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ investment group.
Important Because:
The area is almost completely undeveloped right now, and has very few residents.
Any development project on the land will be challenging because of the current water situation.
There’s simply not enough water, and ground-water pumping still goes on despite prolonged efforts to stop or reduce it.
More importantly, summers now are considerably hotter than just a few decades ago.
This Happened:
Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment LLC has paid about $80 million for a large stake in Belmont in West Valley, a 24,800 acre development about 45 minutes west of Phoenix, according to the Arizona Republic.
A development of residential and commercial units is expected to come up there.
A total of 3,800 acres is allocated to retail, commercial and office space; a further 470 acres for public schools; and 80,000 residential units are planned on the land, say Belmont Partners, the Arizona based real estate developer running the project.
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