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Bill Gates is Buying Land in Arizona to Build a "Smart City"
An investment firm run by Bill Gates has put down $80 million to develop a planned community in Arizona. The 25,000 acres of land is about 45 minutes west of Phoenix, in an area called the West Valley. The community, which Gates wants to turn into a "smart city," will be named Belmont.
"Belmont will create a forward-thinking community with a communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge technology, designed around high-speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies and distribution models, autonomous vehicles and autonomous logistics hubs," Belmont Partners, the Arizona real state investment company involved in the deal, said in a news release.
The proposed freeway I-11, which would connect the Belmont area to Las Vegas, makes the land an ideal spot for a new community, according to Ronald Schott, the executive emeritus at the Arizona Technology Council. Of the 25,000 acres, 3,800 will be used for office, retail, and commercial space. Another 470 acres will be used for public schools. That leaves enough space for 80,000 residential units.
Also at TheUSBPort, Fossbytes, CNET, and Real Estate Daily News.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Wednesday November 15 2017, @02:55PM (6 children)
His choice of location is interesting. The climate would be better almost anywhere else - Arizona is hot - and it's hard to see where the water is going to come from. But, here's why I think he picked it: Arizona is close enough to the Left Coast to appeal to people. At least, to appeal to the kind of people who would want to live in to people who think this is a good idea. At the same time, it is outside of California, and hence not subject to mountains of stupid regulations that would make the project impossible.
Of course, $80 million is chump change when it comes to developing an entire small city. We're talking tens of billions of dollars, maybe even hundreds of billions. He's bought the land, emitted some idealistic ideas, and is now looking for some other big-name investors. All of those big-name investors will then create funds and solicit investments from companies and ordinary individuals. Gates wants to be the leading light, but he (and the other big name investors he hopes for) will want to spend other people's money. That's how the rich stay rich, after all.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:33PM (2 children)
Only place I can think of recently to compare it with would be Las Vegas, but that just seems not to fit. Especially, since I'm pretty sure he's not going with the let's build tons of casinos, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday November 15 2017, @05:37PM (1 child)
So we're talking about a master-planned place (Hell) built in the desert (Hell) by people With Good Intentions (Hell), and it won't have blackjack and hookers?
How much will they pay people to live there?
I think they may have to pay royalties [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Thursday November 16 2017, @03:11AM
Yes, but where else could he assemble an army of Uruk-hai without being bothered?
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(Score: 5, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:40PM
His choice of location is interesting. The climate would be better almost anywhere else - Arizona is hot - and it's hard to see where the water is going to come from. But, here's why I think he picked it: Arizona is close enough to the Left Coast to appeal to people. At least, to appeal to the kind of people who would want to live in to people who think this is a good idea. At the same time, it is outside of California, and hence not subject to mountains of stupid regulations that would make the project impossible.
There's several advantages to the location:
1) Land is very cheap if you're far enough away from the center of the Phoenix metro area.
2) Land is very flat there: it's easy to build on, especially a master-planned community, because it's flat and open. No mountains or terrain in the way.
3) It's very hot, but it's dry; you don't have to worry about moisture problems, seasonal problems (freeze/thaw cycles), hurricanes, high winds, etc. All you have to design your buildings to handle is the high heat and sunlight, plus the occasional dust storm or thunderstorm.
4) No earthquakes of any significance.
5) There's lots of power from the nearby Palo Verde nuclear generating station.
6) As it's master-planned, if you can keep people from wasting water on stupid shit like outdoor "water features" (fountains) and irrigated green lawns, the water issue shouldn't be a big problem. People in the Phoenix area waste an incredible amount of water on stupid shit outside like lawns, golf courses, etc. There is *NO* water shortage in the area; if there were, there wouldn't be so many golf courses. Maybe this will bite them in the ass one day (I hope it does), maybe when they completely exhaust the aquifer, but it hasn't happened yet.
7) As you said, it's not in California, so there's a big lack of regulations. They're not entirely absent; they do have vehicular emissions inspections after all (in some counties, not sure if this will have them).
8) It's somewhat close to CA, and Phoenix itself does have a decent tech presence: Intel has major facilities there including a large fab.
9) There's actually a bunch of people who actually *like* that climate. Those people are allergic to snow I think, and dislike rain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @06:53PM
That's the beauty of this, the morons this idea will appear to have no idea. With that amount of "investment" they will have to dig their own wells and create their own sewage solution. But hey who cares about plumbing when you have a Surface stapled to the wall!!!
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday November 15 2017, @06:59PM
The thing is, $80 million isn't enough to build a town, much less a city. Back nearly 50 years ago a college dorm cost a couple of million, and we've had a few years of high inflation since then, so now it would probably be $10 million or so. So we're talking about the price of 8 college dorms without streets, plumbing, electrical supply, sewers, etc. It would buy more buildings if they were smaller, but then they'd hold fewer people. Dorms are built the way they are to get the most people/dollar.
Perhaps this is just the price of the undeveloped land. That would make sense. And he may have said it was going to be developed into this dream city. That would make sense, but believe it if you want to, I'd rate it as PR for something...possibly an industrial park. Unless there are zoning laws were he bought the land, and if there are, it's probably zoned agricultural, in which case he's going to need to lobby to get the zoning changed, and this story would help that.
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