Case Study: University Trust Land Assessment for Arizona Board of Regents

The Challenge

The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), the governing body for several Arizona public universities, is a beneficiary of land held in trust by the Arizona State Land Department (ASLD). As a beneficiary of this trust, ABOR receives monies generated from lease revenues and proceeds from state land sales that are invested into six “permanent funds” which benefit the universities. ABOR has engaged RCLCO to update an analysis done in 1996 for ASLD, which had identified 37 parcels that were ready or capable of development with significant revenue production at that time. The board’s goal was to understand the characteristics and revenue generation potential of the properties held within the six beneficiary funds.

Solution

Working with the State Land Department, RCLCO provided an inventory analysis of the almost 5,000 parcels held in the six funds of which ABOR is a beneficiary. RCLCO developed an analytical framework to assess the development or use potential of these parcels, and created a prioritization and ranking framework. The highest scoring parcel groups were advanced to a more detailed evaluation of potential uses of these properties over the next 10 years. RCLCO highlighted opportunities and potential for these parcels as input to the potential strategy, decision making, and next steps as ABOR and ASLD work together to evaluate the land held in trust.

Impact

RCLCO has presented these findings to ABOR, and they are in the process of reviewing the data to make internal decisions regarding next steps.

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