More than 4 square miles of state-owned land in Apache Junction is being auctioned off in October. The minimum bid is set at $68 million, which some opponents say is a low price tag for the land.

But in what appears to be a first-of-its-kind auction, the Arizona State Land Department is only taking bids from those who follow certain criteria, assuring the department that the bidder isn’t likely to default.

That criteria includes: those with unrestricted cash or equivalents of at least $40 million, have a net worth of not less than $400 million, and have "relevant experience'' in developing a planned community of at least 1,000 acres and at least 2,000 residential units.

Wesley Mehl, the agency's special projects coordinator, says the deal requires the successful bidder to make all the infrastructure improvements on the land and on the surrounding state-owned land, totaling over 8,200 acres. This will lead to higher per-acre values for the state to sell in the future. 

“This structure is designed to try to maximize the amount of revenue we can get out of the land. So we're trying to be smaller with the initial down payment. In this instance, we're using 10%. But that 10% is giving us a 50% profit interest,” Mehl said.

Mehl also says Brookfield Residential is the developer who requested the auction of the over 2,700 acres of land, but that does not mean they will have a leg up in the bid. At least three other developers are interested in the land.