$80M farm sale heralds new epicenter of growth

Sep. 25—The Arizona Dairy Co. earlier this month sold its last 270 acres in Mesa on the southwest corner of Sossaman and Elliot roads for $80 million, paving the way for a mammoth manufacturing campus projected by the new owner.

Shopoff Realty Investments said in a news release after the sale that it is planning 12 to 15 buildings comprising 4.1 million square feet of leasable space.

The parcel is an island of county land within city limits and Shopoff said it plans to apply for annexation by the City of Mesa.

It's a big deal both figuratively and literally, as blocks of vacant land of this size are becoming increasingly scarce in southeast Mesa.

The new deal may herald the beginning of a major boom at this intersection.

Arizona Dairy Co. has been selling off parts of its Mesa agricultural land for years, including 186 acres to Google for a mega data center on the northwest corner of Elliot and Sossaman in 2019.

The Google center, code-named Project Red Hawk before it was announced, generated a lot of excitement and helped stoke the Elliot Road Tech Corridor's current development explosion.

But much of Elliot Road's development has been happening farther to the east on the other side of the 202, with Elliot and Sossaman roads maintaining a rural appearance.

With this last Arizona Dairy Co. deal and other projects nearby making their way through Mesa's planning department, the intersection may soon undergo a major transformation soon.

Earlier this month, Google submitted site plans for Project Red Hawk to the Mesa Planning Department.

Plans for an eight-building industrial park on 60 acres nearby, called Wentworth 80th, received the green light from the Planning and Zoning Board.

Mesa Economic Development Director Bill Jabjiniak said the city's vision for the intersection is high-quality technology and manufacturing jobs.

"With the success we've had in the formal part of the Elliot Road Technology Corridor, it sort of makes sense with Google on the northwest corner to continue the theme and focus of technology all along Elliot Road," Jabjiniak said.

Jabjiniak said the city's talks with Shopoff have focused on development that can attract manufacturing, rather than only logistics warehouses.

"As that gets finalized, it will focus on quality development for quality employers," he said. "It really comes down to jobs, jobs and more jobs."

Cows have come home

The Arizona Dairy Co. is no longer in Mesa, but 3,250 of its 6,500 cows continue to produce fresh milk three times a day for the local market as well as dried milk and other products for parts beyond.

Earlier this year, Arizona Dairy began moving the herd via semi trucks to its new location in Gila Bend, 75 miles southwest of Mesa.

The new facility could only accommodate half the number of its Mesa operation. In the spring, the last of the cows were transported west, and over the summer, the last of the company's dairy equipment was removed from the Mesa parcel.

Based on social media posts, Arizona Dairy's pedigree Holsteins look pretty content in their new digs.

"There's extreme emotion" in parting from Mesa, Arizona Dairy owner and general manager Justin Stewart said. "If my wife was on the phone right now she'd be in tears talking about it."

The Morrison family had been farming in Mesa and Gilbert since the end of World War II and started Arizona Dairy Co. at Sossaman and Elliot in 1973, when they decided to start feeding their own cows after selling produce to dairymen for years.

'You can't stop growth'

Stewart married into the Morrison family and joined the dairy business after serving in the Navy.

Stewart said the company had been contemplating its move from Mesa for 10 years as development encroached on Mesa and Gilbert's agricultural land, making it harder to source corn and alfalfa for the cows and off load manure to fertilize fields.

"You can't stop growth, I'm here to tell you," Stewart said.

Cows consume up to 100 pounds of food a day, so access to affordable feed is critical, and losing nearby fields of corn and other crops raises the price of feed as it has to be trucked in from further away.

Demand for the land also reached a new level after the Google deal, he said.

"When you have such a worldwide company want to move into your neighborhood, that kind of puts you on the map," Stewart said.

Over the years, the company received many inquiries and "tire kickers" interested in the land underneath the cows' feet.

At the same time in recent years, five dairy farms in another part of east Mesa sold their land to make way for the massive Hawes Crossing, which will be a combination of housing developments and commercial operations.

Stewart said he respects Shopoff's CEO William Shopoff because the company was able to cross the finish line on the deal with lots of patience and financial wherewithal.

"Money talks and bull — walks," Stewart said.

Shopoff will probably need some patience to work with the city to get plans approved as the land needs to be annexed and rezoned.

And the city will probably have priorities for developing the area.

"They have a wonderful piece of property," Stewart said. "They will do some really interesting things there."

After landing an $80 million deal, some might be tempted to retire, but Stewart said the family is sticking with dairy farming.

"It's what we know, it's what we do, it's what we love," Stewart said.

He said the family has a lot of respect and appreciation for Holstein cows, which they breed on site, and "we love being a part of the Arizona agricultural community that feeds the world."