Judge Voids World View Contract With Pima County
World View headquarters in Pima County. (Credit: World View Enterprises)
Some bad news for World View Enterprises: a judge has voided a contract between the high-altitude balloon company and Pima County in Arizona.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Catherine Woods said Pima County was obligated to appraise the land and hold a public auction before agreeing to a $15 million incentives package for World View Enterprise last year.
Woods wrote the Legislature “intended to protect public resources from being used wastefully, or with fraud or favoritism.”
Goldwater Institute filed the lawsuit in April, months after the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved an incentives package for World View Enterprise that included building a 120,000-aquare-foot headquarters facility, 15,000-square-foot mezzanine and a launch pad.
World View would pay to lease the building and own it after 20 years of payments. The space exploration company develops high-altitude balloons for commercial, government and research purposes.
World View recently sent out press invitations for a grand opening on Feb. 28.
6 responses to “Judge Voids World View Contract With Pima County”
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Any bank willing to mortgage the property?
Or a property developer?
It was a purpose-built facility that is close enough to he airport for ATC, but far enough south that there is no ramp or runway access (Raytheon is between them and the airport). It’s just a hangar/office building with a large concrete pad in front. I’m not sure what the value of such a building is to other groups (beyond being just a big building).
it makes a decent heliport.
If only it did that! It’s not connected to a terminal or have an easy way to get fuel there…
I wonder if any of the supervisors will have ethic charges filed against them for misappropriation of funds since they already spent (misspent?) taxpayer money on it.
Might also be bad news for Vector who also got a similar sweet deal from the Pima Co. board.