Harvard Investments just tightened its grip on a key stretch of desert along the Gila River, quietly winning a state land auction and picking up nearly 80 acres of Arizona state trust land next to its Estrella holdings in Goodyear. The two roughly 40-acre parcels sit west of Cotton Lane and just south of the Gila River, sliding neatly into the riverfront land the firm has been piecing together. The move further locks in Harvard’s control over a prime build-out zone for its planned Rio 1900 master-planned community.
What sold and where
The state offered the land as Sale No. 53-124987, which totaled about 78.733 acres, with an appraisal of $832,000, according to the Arizona State Land Department. Auction documents break the sale into two pieces: Lot 4, Section 2 at 38.923 acres and NWSW, Section 2 at 39.810 acres. Both went up for a competitive bid at the Feb. 4 sale.
The auction and the bid
Harvard Investments emerged as the winning bidder at last Wednesday’s auction and, as reported by the Phoenix Business Journal, it was the only party that even raised a paddle. That kind of single-bid outcome is common when a developer already controls the surrounding dirt, and it gives Harvard a clean shot at weaving the new parcels into its wider plan without a noisy public bidding war.
What Harvard and planners say
“These parcels are strategically important to our long-term planning efforts,” Harvard Investments’ Amy Weidman said in a statement to AZ Big Media. Harvard previously paid roughly $22 million in 2023 for the adjacent King Ranch, and the company lists that site and Rio 1900 among its communities in planning on its website. City filings and developer materials outline Rio 1900 as a multi-phase project that would link into Estrella and eventually add thousands of homes to the West Valley.
Timeline and next steps
As reported by the Phoenix Business Journal, work on the newly acquired acreage could begin in late 2027, with initial home deliveries phased in after that. Goodyear City Council has already approved a minor general-plan amendment and rezoning for the wider Rio 1900 site at a Jan. 26 meeting, a milestone noted by ABC15, which helps accelerate entitlement and infrastructure planning. Developers say locking up the parcels now cuts down on future holdouts and gives them better control over road layouts and open-space connections.
Why this matters
State trust land sales are designed to generate money for public schools and typically start at the appraised value, according to the Arizona State Land Department’s notices. The Rio 1900 concept already on the table with planners calls for on the order of thousands of homes, roughly 5,700 units in some filings, so the newly acquired parcels help Harvard pull together a more seamless mix of neighborhoods and commercial sites along the river corridor, as detailed in reporting by The Real Deal and developer materials.
