GM in 2004 sold 1,800 of the 5,000 acres that make up the proving grounds to Pacific Proving for $45 million. The company is headed by William Levine, a billboard mogul, who has applied for annexation to the city and plans to turn his land into a mixed-used development, including industrial, office and residential.
For 54 years, General Motors assumed the role of good corporate neighbor to Mesa without ever becoming a resident of the city.
It was widely assumed that the automotive giant’s desert proving grounds was in Mesa even though it is on a county island just east of the city.
Annexing to one of America’s fastest growing municipalities was not a priority for a company that went to great lengths to keep its experimental vehicles and futuristic prototypes out of public view.
But those ground rules have changed under the historic test site’s new owners who build communities, not cars.
Becoming a corporate citizen of Mesa is on the front burner for DMB and Pacific Proving LLC, companies that will be dependent on the city’s infrastructure to develop the property, representatives of the firms said this week.
"The city of Mesa controls water and sewer and the city will not want to serve water and sewer to property without it having been annexed," said Paul Gilbert, a zoning attorney for Pacific Proving. "That’s a great tool that a municipality has to ensure annexation and Mesa uses it very aggressively."
GM in 2004 sold 1,800 of the 5,000 acres that make up the proving grounds to Pacific Proving for $45 million. The company is headed by William Levine, a billboard mogul, who has applied for annexation to the city and plans to turn his land into a mixed-used development, including industrial, office and residential.
The remaining acreage was purchased in December by DMB, which is known for high-end housing and commercial projects such as Verrado in Buckeye. DMB, which agreed to pay $265 million for the property, will move soon to have it in the city limits.
"We are solely focused at the point on annexing the property to the city," said Karrin Kunasek Taylor, a DMB vice president. "We have not made a secret of that to the city and the county."
Like Gilbert, Taylor said annexation, a process that takes at least three months to complete, provides benefits that enhance the company’s ability to pursue its goals for the land.
Though the property is in the county, it is contiguous to Mesa’s eastern border and is just east of Williams Gateway Airport.
It also is within Mesa’s municipal planning area and the city for years has contemplated that it would eventually come into the city, Taylor said.
"That puts us on a path of working with Mesa and their desire that this area become an employment core for the region," she said. "They want to aggressively pursue jobs and so do we. We are aligned with Mesa on a number of levels on a number of issues such as jobs, growth and vitality of nearby Williams Gateway Airport. That is important to the success of our property."
It also represents a major shift in corporate philosophy about annexation.
"The relationship between us and the city was always good but there was no advantage to Mesa for us to be annexed," said Jack Sellers, a retired GM official and longtime spokesman for the proving grounds. "The city has no property tax."
The test site still has its own septic system and operated for years with water from wells on the property until city water lines were extended to the facility under an agreement with Mesa, he said.
"When we did get to the point about connecting to the sewer system we began discussing annexation," Sellers said. That was short-lived, he said, when GM made the decision that the proving grounds were to be relocated.
The company always had an "informal agreement" with the city to provide police and fire protection should it be needed, said Wayne Balmer, a retired Mesa city official who served as planning and zoning director during the proving grounds’ golden days.
"They were very concerned about security," he recalled. "They didn’t want anyone to see their test products and as long as Williams Air Force Base was their neighbor it was difficult for civilian airplanes to fly in the area and over their test track without clearance."
Their productive relationship with Mesa was based on the city’s view of them as "a good corporate citizen," Balmer said. "They were always involved in things to help the community such as the United Way and food drives."
Art Thomason
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 15, 2007 02:33 PM
This article is archive. Original source: http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/0815mr-gmannex0815.html
