Boston – One of Bill Gates’ investment firms has purchased land in the Arizona desert to build a city of 80,000 homes. A flexible infrastructure model will help turn it into a smart city.
Bill Gates is venturing into the desert wilderness. Or more
precisely, 80 kilometres west of Phoenix, Arizona in the Sonora
desert where he plans to built Belmont, the city of the
future.
“Belmont will transform a raw, blank slate into a
purpose-built edge city built around a flexible infrastructure
model,” according to Belmont Partners, which Belongs to Microsoft
founder Bill Gates. As does Cascade Investment, which recently
purchased the 10,000 hectare tract of land west of Phoenix for $80
million.
Developers hope Belmont will re-envision housing in the
southwestern United States, where unbridled development has led to
congestion and smog in a region that once drew retirees asthmatics
due to its slow pace and clean air.
“They are rethinking what a community is that isn’t led by
homebuilding,” said Grady Gammage, a real estate attorney for
Belmont Partners.
Solar power, self-driving cars and other technology would be
key to realizing that vision.
“Belmont will create a forward-thinking community with a
communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge
technology, designed around high-speed digital networks, data
centres, new manufacturing technologies and distribution models,
autonomous vehicles and autonomous logistics hubs,” said Belmont
Partners.
People in Arizona welcome the idea, saying the city would spin
off tech startups and other business that would generate new growth
in the state.
"Bill Gates is known for innovation and those kind of things,
and I think he picked the right place,” said Arizona Technology
Council Executive Emeritus Ron Schott. “Finally, Arizona is getting
recognized for being a place for innovation.”
But others have raised questions about the idea of building a
city in the desert. Seattle Times columnist Jon Talton, an Arizona
native who now regularly covers Microsoft, said climate change is
putting enormous pressure on Phoenix. Concerns about water and
sprawl have led to a cycle of real estate booms and busts over the
last century that have ruined many plans for utopias in the state,
he added.
“Arizona doesn’t have enough water to continue these kind of
developments, no matter what the mouthpieces of the Real Estate
Industrial Complex say,” Talton wrote. “Whether Phoenix will even
be inhabitable by mid-century is an open question.”
By John Dyer
By John Dyer