[Obadno]

Lucid Motors slowly becoming a reality:

Pinal County purchased 500 acres of land in Casa Grande to be leased and eventually sold to Lucid Motors Inc., which plans to create a $700 million production facility on the site.

The Arizona plant’s focus will be on the Lucid Air, an all-electric luxury sedan the company claims has a 400-mile range and top speed of 200 mph.

The county stepped in to help the deal by consolidating the land under one ownership that eventually would be sold to Lucid, Pinal County Manager Greg Stanley said. The county closed on the land at the end of 2018, spending $29.94 million through the issuance of bonds.

As part of the agreement, Lucid will pay $1.8 million per year in rent for the first four years of the agreement, and will buy the land in the fifth year, Stanley said. The county will break even on the deal.

Lucid eventually plans to employ 2,300 people at the site, which is expected to begin construction in the second quarter of this year.

Lucid is required to keep funds in an account that, if the plant does not come to fruition, will be used by the county to complete infrastructure improvements on the site to make it a shovel-ready industrial park.

Most of the land was owned by Scottsdale-based Saint Holdings before being purchased by the county. Kirk McCarville of Land Advisors brokered a deal for 80 acres from a separate seller of adjacent land, which was purchased by the county as part of the 500-acre total purchase.

Saint Holdings is owner and developer of the Central Arizona Commerce Park, which contains the Lucid land.

“We have quite a bit of interest in the northern parcels,” said Jackob Andersen, president and CEO of Saint Holdings of the Central Arizona Commerce Park, which is also part of an opportunity zone. “We are open for business on the neighboring sites, we hope the others will get auxiliary uses.”

Saint Holdings also owns and is developer of the Inland Port of Arizona in Coolidge, where Nikola Motor Co. plans to build a manufacturing plant. Nikola plans to manufacture its hydrogen-electric semi-trucks at the facility.

Andersen said he sees a good opportunity for Arizona to become a manufacturing hub for high-tech alternative fuel or autonomous vehicles.