SCOTTSDALE, AZ — A vigorous bidding war kept a standing room only crowd on their toes on Wednesday as two nonprofit hospital systems battled for a 48-acre parcel of Arizona land.
Phoenix-based Banner Health was the initial applicant, requesting the Arizona State Land Department to consider selling the parcel at the northeast corner of Loop 101 and Hayden Road in Scottsdale — right in the backyard of Scottsdale-based HonorHealth, which ended up as the winning bidder.
Banner Heath had big plans for that parcel — a hospital campus with an acute-care hospital, surgery center and medical office buildings totaling more than 1 million square feet.
But not if Todd LaPorte had anything to say about it.
The HonorHealth CEO bid against Banner Health CFO Dennis Laraway, ratcheting up the price of the land that started at a minimum bid of $56.95 million all the way up to $84 million. The live auction was held Nov. 16 at the Arizona State Land Department offices in downtown Phoenix.
