A former Walmart executive is looking to build a sustainable city and Arizona could be the chosen location.
Arizona is on the short list for a new $400 billion smart city proposed by billionaire Marc Lore. City plans were released on Sept. 1 for Telosa, a proposed sustainable city that as planned would consist of 150,000 acres, roughly 234 square miles, with 5 million people over the next 40 years.
Lore’s proposed smart city is surveying other states for the proposed city. The other states on the short list are Texas, Utah, Idaho and Nevada and the Appalachian region, according to the company’s website.
Lore is a co-founder of Diapers.com and was president and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce until January 2021. He also purchased the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx with his business partner Alex Rodriguez and started and sold four companies, including Jet.com.
The anticipated city of Telosa will be built in several stages. The first phase is targeted to be complete by 2030 and will consist of 50,000 people living in a circular neighborhood of 1,500 acres. Once populated, the city would expand the first phase by encircling it with subsequent layers of 1,500-acre neighborhoods.
Some Arizona real estate experts are skeptical of the proposed project, stating there are no land parcels of that size that could be acquired without having to create an assemblage. Only 17% of Arizona’s land is privately owned, leaving no easily identifiable locations for a development of that size.
