The future is here, ready or not. Belmont is an area west of the White Tank Mountains, just west of the western border of Buckeye. Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment, LLC and their partners bought about 25,000 acres at a cost of $80 million. Belmont Partners is the real estate investment group created to develop the project consisting of 80,000 residential units, 3,800 acres of commercial, office and retail space, and 470 acres for public schools.
Ten years ago, the land was going to be a new home subdivision by now defunct Engle Homes. Now, it is planned to be a “Smart City” with cutting-edge technology, residential, retail, office and industrial development contained in a city built around high speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies and self-driving cars.
See what a “Smart City” is:
Although it looks like barren desert, it has the distinction of being home to part of the proposed I-11 corridor slated to link Mexico to Las Vegas. Can you say logistics hub?
According to the Belmont Partners Press release:
“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”
For the West Valley and Arizona, this will be one more fascinating element to our explosion of opportunity.
See the Singapore Smart City/Smart Nation design: