Florence Copper Project opponents issue contrary housing study

As the copper mine showdown in Florence continues, one side has begun to wage on the economic front. While Curis Resources has touted the jobs and economic benefits of its proposed 20-year Florence Copper Project, the increasingly-vocal Protect Our Water Our Future group has contended more housing would be the most fruitful use of the proposed acreage. Curis Resources has argued that the housing market is not nearly as strong as POWOF and its supporters contend. In response, Southwest Value Partners, the California-based real estate investment firm behind the opposition Protect Our Water Our Future effort, issued a commissioned housing study on Aug. 22 that contends Phoenix metro-area foreclosures are dipping and job creation is recovering which will lead to greater future demand for new homes in Florence and surrounding areas. The SVP-commissioned housing study was performed by Phoenix-based Belfiore Real Estate Consulting. The study gave projections on housing supply and demand for Florence and areas in Pinal County. The study also offered criticisms of a Curis-commissioned report by Home Builders Marketing Inc. The study anticipates demand will create the need for more than 8,400 homes within Florence during the next ten years. “Most of the homebuilding that will occur in Florence will occur in and near Merrill Ranch, near existing infrastructure,” the study reads. The study argues that existing home prices are poised for significant near-term increase, as development has been limited in the Metro Phoenix Area and East Valley during the last four years, resulting in a shortage of finished lots. BREC contends this shortage and the limited amount of developable land in the Hunt Highway Corridor leading to Florence will push homebuilders and demand upward in the next decade. The study opposes the Curis-commissioned HBMI report, which argues there will be no need for additional lot development as it projected a four-decade supply in active, dormant, future-platted and announced future subdivisions in the surrounding area. In response to the BREC study, Curis CEO Michael McPhie argued it is out of touch with marketplace realities. “We have all seen the negative effects associated with an overreliance on new residential home growth,” he said in an email.

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