Prudential is 'mystery' bidder for Geneva land

PROVO — A mystery bidder for bankrupt Geneva Steel's 1,700-acre property has been identified by an attorney for unsecured creditors as Brownfields Development I LLC, a brownfields venture of Prudential Real Estate Investors.

Prudential Real Estate is the real estate investment management arm of life insurance and financial services giant Prudential Financial Cos.

A $44.5 million bid for the Vineyard property was submitted last month by Utah Lake Development LLC. The principals behind Utah Lake Development were not known until Wednesday, when J. Thomas Beckett, an attorney for the unsecured creditors committee, received a letter from Utah Lake identifying its owner.

Prudential Real Estate buys, mediates and develops brownfields — underused, derelict industrial and commercial properties that are contaminated.

"We're very happy to know who the mystery buyer is. Prudential is a very fine and reputable institution with an enormous amount of experience and money," said Beckett, who remained critical of the bid.

Don Blackwelder, a commercial real estate agent with Prudential Utah Real Estate's office in Orem, described the deal as a "shrewd move by Prudential to buy the last big chunk of property in the area."

"Those 1,700 acres can potentially produce 5,000 housing units that's worth millions of dollars. It's a prime piece of real estate with beautiful lake frontage that has been obscured by the (former steel plant)," he said.

"Based on a $44.5-million bid, that works out to about $26,176 an acre. You can't buy land in Orem for less than $60,000 to $70,000 an acre."