GOODYEAR, Ariz. — People in Goodyear may soon see a change in one neighborhood after the Microsoft Corporation purchased land just south of the Phoenix Goodyear Airport.
According to the former owner and managing partner, Rick West, Microsoft Corporation bought the nearly 259 acres at the end of August. The price tag, according to West, was roughly $48 million.
“This is a really wonderful thing for metropolitan Phoenix. It’s a wonderful thing for the West Valley,” West said.
The land south of the Phoenix Goodyear Airport is zoned for both commercial and industrial use, but what this swath may be used for by Microsoft remained a mystery Monday.
As of Monday evening, 12 News had not heard back from the company and a City of Goodyear spokesperson said they were asked to not comment on the purchase.
While a 12 News crew was out near the purchased plots, a contractor employee was marking underground power lines— a common practice just before construction.
“It’s a wonderful thing for Goodyear to attract a company of the quality and size of Microsoft. It makes a significant investment in our community," West said. "Their plans will be to build something that will be there for decades would be my expectation."
Oscar Sanchez and his family moved to the area 14 years ago. He thinks the neighborhood could benefit from the purchase.
“More people around just overall, more opportunities for workers, also more jobs,” Sanchez said.
Patricia Mahoney who has lived in the area for 12 years said she wasn't overly excited about what may come.
"I’m not that much of a change person," she said. "The area is pretty quiet and stuff so with all the traffic and stuff that’s gonna to be out here there’s gonna be a lot more traffic."
The purchase came nearly a year after one of Bill Gates’s investment firms bought 25,000 acres about 40 miles west of this plot for his proposed smart city, Belmont.