Albuquerque, New Mexico Real Estate
End of Era—400-year-old New Mexico land grant sold to California developer
History was made in Albuquerque in November when shareholders finally voted to approve the sale of one of the oldest existing land grants in the United States.
The Atrisco land grant is almost 400 years old. Granted during the Spanish colonial period, it survived revolts, false claims, and the ceding of Mexico to the United States. It was honored by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Upt o less than a month ago, the Atrisco land grant was one of the oldest continuous existing land grants in the United States and one of the few Spanish Colonial grants made that remained continuously in the hands of the heirs of the original settlers.
Understandably, months of heated debates, preceded the shareholders majority vote to allow Westland Corporation (into which the Atrisco land grant was incorporated) to sell some 57,000 acres to SunCal Company of California.
Many shareholders found it difficult to part with something that had been in the family for so many of years. Views were mixed. Some shareholders did not want the land sold to outsiders, while others thought it was time to get more out of the land than their grandparents did.
The greatest beneficiary of the transaction may be the city of Albuquerque that is fast running out of land for expansion. With Native American lands and mountains to the north and east, and the airport and air force base to the south, the availability of the Atrisco land grant in the west may be a welcome relief for expansion and development.
|
RSS Blog Feed