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Feb 15, 2010
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Phoenix eyes new campus land buy

Tags: arizona state university

[Source: The Arizona Republic] - The same week that Phoenix leaders imposed a 2 percent food tax to prevent layoffs and painful cuts to city services, City Council members agreed to spend $6 million to buy a vacant motel so Arizona State University can expand its downtown campus.

The city plans to buy the old Ramada Inn at 401 N. First Street with $5 million left over from a 2006 city bond that was enacted largely to help construct ASU's downtown Phoenix campus, plus roughly $1.3 million from the city-owned Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel's capital improvement fund.

The city and the motel property's owner, Phoenix-based City Centre LLC, have not finalized the sale but hope to before it is due to be sold at a foreclosure auction on March 2.

The city has been eying the property for years but was put off by the price, which was once as high as $30 million. Now, it wants to buy the property before it goes to auction, where it may lose it to another buyer. Records show City Centre owes its lender $5.2 million.

For more information: Phoenix eyes new campus land buy