The Arizona Board of Regents is expected to approve the University of Arizona’s purchase of a residential property for $625,000 that is within the school’s strategic planning boundary.
The privately-owned home, at 1516 E. Drachman St. north of the main campus and west of Banner-University Medical Center, is 2,230 square feet, includes six bedrooms and five bathrooms and sits on a 5,700-square-foot site. The property is tucked between two UA-owned parcels of land.
“In the past three years, the UA has pursued a plan to acquire any properties within the UA’s Campus Planning Boundary when they become available for sale, to provide the UA with maximum flexibility for future development within its planning boundary,” according to ABOR documents posted online.
The Regents are expected to vote on the sale at their meeting in two weeks in Flagstaff.
Because of Banner-UMC’s expansion, the UA is relocating its facilities management electrical shop to the lot next to the property that is being purchased. The property owner sought the sale of the property, which is used as student housing, to the UA because of the electrical shop being located next door, according to ABOR documents.
The appraised value of the home is $550,000, $75,000 below what the UA is planning to pay, said Gregg Goldman, the university’s chief financial officer, at an ABOR committee meeting in Tempe on Thursday.
The negotiated price “reflects the value of the property as being located within the UA Campus Planning Boundary and subject to future assemblage for UA uses,” according to the board.
As the value of residential properties continue increase in the area, the school hopes to buy the property before the price climbs, according to ABOR documents.
