It may seem strange to many of us, because we are urban nerds who like seeing things built, but I think The Dirt calls it exactly as it is by pointing to the line "They put this piece under the limelight" as painting Geller as an opportunist. It seems clear that, to him, there is no joy in seeing his properties developed. It's all simply money. And with the amount of vacant lots Downtown with "D" district zoning, this is a perfectly rational choice for him to make.
I know people don't always like to hear it, but speculating on vacant land based on zoning build-out potential can be quite profitable. It's part of the reason the DURA era was so destructive - they cleared FAR more land than could reasonably be re-absorbed in a short amount of time (something Ken pointed out in his CPR interview last May). In doing so, it gave speculators like Buzz Geller ample opportunity to sit on vacant land and see continuous monetary gain while investing absolutely nothing into that property in the process. And there's no reason to expect he can't simply continue to do this. If you take no pleasure in urban development, then why develop at all when you can make more money simply continuing to sit?
I know I've pointed this out before, but
Strong Towns does a pretty good job of explaining the economics of this phenomenon.
To paraphrase... "On a walking tour there, we strolled through blocks and blocks of gaps -- empty and underutilized lots -- just off of their core downtown..." "It was more property than would ever be utilized as T-5 [it would take 54,000-100,000 new residents in a relatively small city to maximize buildout of every single T-5 property] and it was sitting there, high priced and waiting for the right buyer to come by and make the owner rich..." "And the property owner had good reason to find this wait rational. It was reported to me that prices had been going up dramatically..." "With the land consistently going up in value and the cost to hold it minimal -- it is being taxed as raw land -- why not wait for a windfall?"