Politicians often place assets into a blind trust to avoid conflicts while in office. In a blind trust, the executor is given full control of the assets.

The Mountain Vista Business Center is located in the old Ironton section of southeast Provo on the border of Springville, where U.S. Steel operated a mill until 1962.

U.S. Steel donated the property to Brigham Young University.

Among those who later tried to develop the land were the Billings brothers. Roger Billings and his Billings Energy Corp. bought the land in 1976. Roger Billings had a plan for a business park then, and the area is still referred to as Billings Technology Park on county records.

In fact, what is now Ironton Boulevard is still listed on the records as Billings Avenue.

After his brother sold out, Lewis Billings said he made a run at developing the land, considered a risky investment because of contamination from the steel mill.

In 1992, before cleanup began and before Billings was involved in city government, the Provo City Council approved an option to purchase 139 acres from Billings.

The city didn't exercise that option until 1999, 18 months after Billings became mayor. Provo still got the 7-year-old price of $3,000 an acre. Hill said at the time the land had jumped in worth to more than $60,000 an acre.

"The city made a haul when it bought that property from the mayor at the option price," Hill said. "He's been taken to the cleaners on that property."

Billings put proceeds from the $447,000 sale into the blind trust.

In another twist, Billings donated an additional 10 acres to the city to end a dispute. The city council believed it had bought that l0-acre lot, too, but Billings disagreed and wanted to sell the land for $55,000 an acre to a different entity.

When the council objected, Billings decided instead to give it to the city, saying he had learned public service came at a "high price."

Billings has stayed at arm's length from city plans to develop the business park, employees say.

It's unlikely Billings' last pieces of Ironton land would bring the Action Target price of $110,000 per acre, said Dixon Holmes, assistant director for economic development.

"They're landlocked," Holmes said. "In my opinion, they're not great pieces of land. When people say the mayor stands to profit off the ground, it's laughable."

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com