The Ellman Companies has roughly two more years to come up with more than $180 million to pay for its purchase of 1,276 acres of state trust land in Fountain Hills.

The issue came to light recently when Mayor Linda Kavanagh used a Town Council meeting to comment on questions she was receiving from the public.

The parcel, which has been annexed by the Town of Fountain Hills, is sandwiched between McDowell Mountain Regional Park and the northern developed part of town.

Kavanagh said that in researching the issue she learned that Ellman had made a $25 million payment on the purchase, and the company was granted an extension to pay the remainder of what it owes.

Kavanagh said that comes to more than $180 million.

According to Bill Boyd with the Arizona State Land Department Government Affairs Division, the deadline for Ellman to make full payment is March 15, 2016.

That is roughly nine years after Ellman bid $110.1 million for the property. If payment is not made by the deadline the property will go back into the bid process.

Except for the occasional rumor or inquiry, there has been no recent movement toward development of the property.

Don Kile, head of residential development for Ellman, has consistently declined to make any comment on the project in recent years.

The Times received a phone message from Kile recently in response to an inquiry about the project. Kile again stated in that message that he would have no comment.

Chaparral City Water Company was granted the authority to provide water service to the land parcel, but as of this writing neither CCWC nor its parent company, EPCOR, has had any discussions with Ellman about infrastructure construction.

Fountain Hills Sanitary District General Manager Ron Huber said he has not heard from Ellman in “years.”

The district had some early discussions with the developer about providing sanitary service to the parcel. Huber said those discussions got no further than a draft development agreement that was never acted upon.

In 2011 Ellman had a test well drilled for a possible underground recharge site for the Sanitary District.

Town officials also have had no recent discussions with Ellman Companies, also known as Fountain Hills Investment Company, LLC with regard to the local parcel.

In March 2012 the town did receive a request from the developer related to a possible grading permit to begin excavation along a new roadway alignment across the property, as well as for grading work on the site of a proposed 40-acre park.

As recently as late last year, Steve Ellman stated in a newspaper article that he would name the park after Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a Fountain Hills resident.

No permit was ever issued and no work has ever been done.

Shortly after incorporation in 1990 the Town of Fountain Hills began taking an interest in the approximately two sections of state trust land that occupied the northeast corner outside the town boundary.

However, it was not until early in 2006 that the town was able to arrive at a pre-annexation development agreement with the State Land Department.

That was just prior to the Land Department finding parties that were willing to bid on the land at auction. The auction was delayed nearly a year before it finally took place.

After the land was annexed by the Town of Fountain Hills, per the agreement with State Land, the town worked with the developer to establish some new entitlements for the property.

The agreement allowed for a maximum of 1,750 residential units on the 1,320 acres, including a small sliver along the border with the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation.

It was expected that the total unit count would be reduced after platting and planning had gone through the town.

The recession that began in 2008 seriously degraded the value of vacant real estate parcels, leaving the question as to whether Ellman could ever recover more than $200 million that could ultimately be invested in the property.