AZ landowner capitalizes on solar development

The largest landowner in Arizona would have been in big trouble when the real estate bubble burst if it weren’t for solar. Vermaland is a family-owned business. When the Vermas moved to Arizona about 20 years ago, property was cheap, and they started buying up office parks and vacant land. Through the 1990s and early 2000s, they sold wide swaths to developers who planted endless tracks of identical housing and fancy new strip malls. “Now we’re partnering with solar developers or leasing the land,” said Anita Verma-Lallian. “We get the sites ready for solar interconnection.” Vermaland is currently marketing a piece of land it already got zoned for solar use and submitted a 20-megawatt Gila Bend cluster interconnection request. The property is less than a mile from the Arlington substation. “We are looking for developers to take over and continue developing this site,” Verma-Lallian writes in an email to perspective developers. The company readies sites for solar developers and now buys in prime locations for utility-scale solar development. It gets the infrastructure in place, which makes the process easier and faster for potential solar developers. Verma-Lallian said the company started realizing the potential for solar shortly after the real estate bust. “It’s very fortunate that this opportunity is there for us at this time,” Verma-Lallian said. A lot of developers and major real estate holders haven’t been so lucky. Many have gone bankrupt, especially in Arizona where the real estate market was hard hit by foreclosure.

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