Tucson, Arizona
Tucson's owner of record is free in bulk through Pima County's GIS, and it shows a city whose downtown landmarks largely stand in public names: the tallest tower, the convention centre and Caterpillar's mining headquarters are all titled to the Rio Nuevo tax district and leased back.
7 buildings · 7 with an owner established · 23 sources · 2 tier A · 5 tier B · prepared 2026-10-13
Arizona has no state title register; ownership is a county record. The Pima County Assessor keeps the owner of record and value of every parcel, and Pima County's GIS department republishes them nightly, free and without registration, in its 'Parcels - Regional' layer: owner name, mailing address, legal description, recording date and full cash value. Every deed must have appended, at recording, a sworn affidavit stating the price paid (A.R.S. 11-1133), so prices exist sale by sale, but no open bulk file of them was found for Pima County and the Assessor's own website forbids all automated access. Deeds are recorded by the County Recorder for $30 per document and can be searched and viewed free as watermarked copies.
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One South Church (former UniSource Energy Tower) 1 S Church Avenue, Tucson (condominium units 117-12-1080 and 117-12-1090) |
Mixed use | Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Both condominium units stand in the name of Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District: Unit 1 ($31.4M full cash value, recorded 9 Jan 2024) and Unit 2 ($15.3M, 26 Feb 2024). Rio Nuevo's 2020 development agreement splits the 23-storey tower into a hotel unit (Unit 2, floors 2 and 5-9 plus parts of 1 and 4) sold to 1SC Hotel QOZB LLC and an office unit (floors 10-23 plus a 484-space garage) kept by 1SC Partners SPE LLC; both convey title to the District and lease it back under GPLET for eight years, with an option to repurchase for $10 plus sums owed. Rio Nuevo says the Leo Kent hotel opened in March 2023. |
Government | —A |
| 5151 E. Broadway 5151 E Broadway Boulevard, Tucson (parcel 127-01-005D) |
Office | Tucson 5151 Investments LLC and co-owners 68.45% (Tucson 5151 Investments); 5.40% (Belmont Broadway); remainder 'et al' The roll names a tenancy in common: 'TUCSON 5151 INVESTMENTS 68.45% & BELMONT BROADWAY 5.40% ET AL', recording date 20 Jul 2007, 7.8 acres, full cash value $25.4M, office use. The other co-owners are not named on the roll. The Arizona Daily Star (Jan 2010) called it a 16-storey landmark tower on 8.3 acres and said Tucson 5151 Investments LLC is controlled by Scottsdale-based Seldin Real Estate Inc. No document opened states a purchase price. |
Private company | —B |
| Tucson Convention Center 260 S Church Avenue, Tucson (parcel 117-20-029A and neighbours) |
Civic | Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District The arena-and-halls block (TCC Block D, 22.94 acres, $50.3M full cash value) stands in Rio Nuevo's name, recorded 28 Dec 2007; parts of Block A remain in the City's name. The City's own inventory lists the parcel as 'TCC ARENA', acquired from Rio Nuevo, and notes it was deeded to Wells Fargo in 2006 and repurchased under a certificates-of-participation agreement. Rio Nuevo's FY2025 audit: 'The District leases the TCC to the City' until 1 January 2050; lease revenue was $1,103,333 in 2025. |
Government | —B |
| Caterpillar Tucson Mining Center (Surface Mining & Technology headquarters) 875 W Cushing Street, Tucson (parcel 116-20-134B) |
Office | Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Owner of record Rio Nuevo, recorded 30 May 2017; 7.85 acres, $52.3M full cash value; legal description 'RIO NUEVO - CATERPILLAR BLK 1'. The City's inventory records the land as sold to Rio Nuevo (30 May 2017), and Rio Nuevo's audit says $7.2M of a City debt was cancelled for 'land received from the City related to the Caterpillar project'. Rio Nuevo lent $43M to build it: 'The entire $43M plus interest will be passed on to Caterpillar by the terms of a multi-year lease.' Caterpillar is the tenant, not the owner of record. |
Government | —B |
| Historic Pima County Courthouse 115 N Church Avenue, Tucson (parcel 117-20-0110) |
Civic | Pima County Owner of record Pima County, 1.76 acres, $15.1M full cash value. BizTUCSON (June 2022): built 1929, restored by Pima County's Facilities Management Department in a $35 million project finished November 2021; tenants include the University of Arizona's gem and mineral museum and Visit Tucson, which reimbursed the County for their improvements, alongside County administration. The article does not give the street address; the parcel match is the roll's situs. |
Government | —B |
| Hotel Congress 311 E Congress Street, Tucson (parcel 117-06-166B) |
Hotel | 311 East Congress LLC Owner of record 311 East Congress LLC, tax mailing 311 E Congress St, recording date 28 Jan 2010; 0.54 acres, hotel use code, $4.6M full cash value. The parcel has no single situs address on the layer, so it is matched to the hotel by the owner's name, its mailing address and the hotel use code. No document opened names the LLC's members or states a price. |
Private company | —B |
| University of Arizona main campus Central Tucson; main parcel 124-01-001H, described on the roll as lying between Park Avenue and 2nd Street |
Institutional | Arizona Board of Regents The core campus parcel, 180.5 acres in the name of the Arizona Board of Regents, carries $402.6M of full cash value, the highest of any parcel in the city. The Regents hold 606 parcels in Tucson, 1,551 acres and $1.44B in all (561 of them mailing to the university's PO Box 210186). Banner - University Medical Center Tucson, beside the campus, stands in Banner Health's name ($241.8M). |
Government | —A |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
The most valuable parcel in Tucson is the University of Arizona's main campus. Downtown, public bodies own a large share of the ground: the City of Tucson, Pima County and the Rio Nuevo district between them hold more than a third of the value of downtown's assessor map book. Several private apartment and hotel buildings stand in the City's or Rio Nuevo's name under the government property lease excise tax (GPLET), which swaps property tax for a lower excise tax. Figures are summed by this research from Pima County GIS 'Parcels - Regional' (layer refreshed 12 Oct 2026), taking parcels whose jurisdiction field is TUCSON.
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Inside Tucson the largest holders are public. The state trust is the biggest by area: roughly 42,600 acres of state trust land lie inside the city limits, much of it on the south-east edge. The City of Tucson owns about 15,000 acres, and the federal government's holdings are dominated by Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, which lies almost entirely inside the city. The two nations whose reservations border Tucson - the Tohono O'odham Nation's San Xavier District and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe - hold their reservations outside the city limits; inside it the roll shows only small tribal holdings. Acreages are the GIS acreage summed by this research; every spelling of an entity is grouped.
| Name | Type | Holdings in the City |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona State Land Department (State Land Trust) Trust parcels from the Department's own layer whose centre falls inside the City boundary; parcels straddling the line are counted whole. The trust holds 854,657 acres in Pima County. On the roll, 'State of Arizona' holds 471 parcels and 39,147 acres in the City, which also includes highways, prisons and state offices. |
Government | about 42,600 acres, 125 trust parcelsA |
| City of Tucson Under 'City of Tucson' and 'City of Tucson Real Estate Division'; $1.44B of full cash value. About 4,364 of those acres lie inside the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base boundary. Tucson Water's land is held in the City's name and is not separable on the roll (one parcel is marked 'Attn: Water Department'). |
Government | 2,224 parcels, 14,966 acresA |
| United States of America (incl. Davis-Monthan AFB) Federal parcels in the City, $517.8M full cash value, including a 632-acre Federal Bureau of Prisons parcel and the VA hospital. The Davis-Monthan boundary covers about 10,558 acres, of which City parcels account for 10,527: of those, about 5,814 acres are federal, 4,364 acres the City's and 228 acres the State's. |
Government | 100 parcels, 8,499 acresA |
| Pima County Pima County, its Flood Control District (591 parcels, 2,843 acres) and Real Property entities inside the City, $758.9M full cash value. |
Government | 1,148 parcels, 6,687 acresA |
| Tucson Airport Authority Tucson Airport Authority Inc inside the City. |
Institution | 60 parcels, 2,782 acresA |
| Arizona Board of Regents (University of Arizona) $1.44B of full cash value, the most of any owner in the City; three further State of Arizona parcels (193 acres) are marked 'leased by Arizona Board of Regents'. |
Government | 606 parcels, 1,551 acresA |
| Tucson Unified School District As 'Tucson School District No 1' and 'Tucson Unified School District No 1 of Pima County'; $514.1M full cash value. |
Government | 237 parcels, 1,090 acresA |
| Tucson Electric Power / UniSource Energy 74 parcels in the name of UniSource Energy Corporation and 9 as Tucson Electric Power under three spellings; most carry no county value because utility property is valued centrally. |
Public company | 83 parcels, 777 acresA |
| Union Pacific Railroad Including one parcel still in the name of Southern Pacific Transportation Co; railway land carries no county value on the layer. |
Public company | 68 parcels, 634 acresA |
| Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Under three spellings. A tax-increment district formed by the City of Tucson and the City of South Tucson; its audit says it 'holds title to various properties, leases them back to developers for a nominal annual fee' with a repurchase option, so developers avoid property tax for up to 25 years. |
Government | 57 parcels, 79.5 acres, $289.9MA |
| Pascua Yaqui Tribe Inside the City: parcels in the Tribe's name (several spellings) and 13 held by the United States in trust for the Tribe; $45.8M full cash value. The Pascua Yaqui reservation itself (about 2,200 acres on the boundary layer) contains no City parcels. |
Government | 101 parcels, 81.5 acresA |
| Tohono O'odham Nation Inside the City only a 2-acre parcel in the name of the Nation's economic development authority. The San Xavier District (about 71,400 acres on the boundary layer) borders Tucson and contains no City parcels; the Nation's main reservation is further west. |
Government | 1 parcel, 2.0 acresA |
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Tucson is a smaller new-home market than Phoenix. In Census Bureau permit data for 2025, Pima County (which is the whole Tucson metro) permitted 4,658 homes, 3,592 of them single-family; the City of Tucson permitted 1,505, of which 805 were single-family and 668 were in buildings of five or more units. Most new subdivisions are outside the city, in Marana, Sahuarita, Vail and the unincorporated county. A large part of the subdivision land on the Pima roll is held not by builders but by title agencies as trustees of Arizona land trusts (Landmark Title, Fidelity National Title, Title Security Agency, Stewart Title) - the beneficiary is not on the roll - so builder figures below are only what stands in the builder's own name, county-wide, with the number inside the City noted. They are lots and unsold homes, not closings.
| Name | Type | Parcels on the Pima roll, Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| D.R. Horton Held as DR Horton Inc (317) and D R Horton Inc (19), about 44 acres; 50 inside the City. Forestar USA Real Estate Group, a lot developer, holds a further 105 parcels. |
Public company | 336 parcelsA |
| LGI Homes Under three spellings - LGI Homes AZ LLC (128), LGI Homes-Arizona LLC (117), LGI Homes Arizona LLC (34); 26 inside the City. |
Public company | 279 parcelsA |
| Lennar Lennar Arizona LLC; 14 inside the City. A further 281 parcels stand in the names of Millrose Properties entities, none inside the City; their relationship to Lennar is not stated in any record opened here. |
Public company | 213 parcelsA |
| Mattamy Homes Mattamy Tucson LLC, about 90 acres; 27 inside the City. |
Private company | 145 parcelsA |
| PulteGroup Pulte Home Company LLC and two variant spellings, about 121 acres; none inside the City. |
Public company | 45 parcelsA |
| KB Home KB Home Tucson Sales Inc and KB Home Tucson Inc, about 18 acres; one inside the City. Meritage Homes of Arizona holds a single parcel; no Richmond American entity was found on the Pima roll. |
Public company | 4 parcelsA |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Tucson has few institutional office owners; its towers sit in local LLCs, tenancies in common and, downtown, in public names under GPLET. The large investor landlords are single-family-rental companies, industrial owners on the south side and student-housing funds near the university. Hospitals are also among the largest private holders by value.
| Name | Type | Tucson holding |
|---|---|---|
| American Homes 4 Rent (AMH) FY2025 10-K Schedule III: Tucson, AZ, 861 single-family homes, gross carrying amount $249.7M, acquired 2011-2025. On the roll, AMH and AH4R entities hold 590 parcels inside the City, including 268 in AMH Development LLC and 146 in AMH La Estancia Development TRS LLC. |
REIT | 861 homesA |
| EastGroup Properties FY2025 10-K Schedule III, Tucson: Country Club Commerce Center 1, 2, 3 & 4 and 5, Airport Distribution Center and Benan Distribution Center, $67,358K gross. On the roll EastGroup Properties LP holds 15 parcels in the City, 55.4 acres, $77.8M full cash value. |
REIT | 6 industrial properties, $67.4M grossA |
| FirstKey Homes (FKH SFR entities) FKH SFR Propco and FKH SFR LP entities inside the City, $42.7M full cash value. The roll names only the entities; no filing was opened for the parent. |
Private equity | 148 parcelsA |
| Progress Residential Progress Residential Borrower entities inside the City (386 county-wide), $32.5M full cash value. The parent is not described by any record opened here. |
Private equity | 126 parcelsA |
| Banner Health Banner Health and Banner - University Medical Center entities inside the City, 57 acres, led by the Banner - University Medical Center Tucson parcel ($241.8M). |
Institution | 14 parcels, $337.5MA |
| Target Corporation 146 acres inside the City under three spellings, led by an industrial parcel in Interstate Commerce Park ($127.2M, 97.7 acres). |
Public company | 6 parcels, $180.8MA |
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Sale prices. Arizona requires an affidavit of value stating the price with every deed (A.R.S. 11-1133), but in Pima County no open bulk file of those prices was found: the Pima open-data catalogue returned no sales or affidavit dataset, the Assessor's site is closed to automated access by robots.txt, and the Arizona Department of Revenue's guidance page is behind Cloudflare. No price in this record comes from an affidavit.
- 5151 E. Broadway: the 2010 Arizona Daily Star link to Seldin Real Estate is sixteen years old; the roll still names Tucson 5151 Investments as 68.45% owner but does not name the other co-owners or their controller.
- One South Church's GPLET term: the 2020 agreement gives eight years of abatement from the hotel's certificate of occupancy (the hotel opened March 2023, per Rio Nuevo). Whether the leaseholders have since exercised the repurchase option was not established; the roll still shows Rio Nuevo in January/February 2024.
- The City-titled GPLET buildings (211 N 4th Ave, 222 S Church Ave, 450 N 5th Ave, 127 S 5th Ave, 20 S Stone Ave): the City's inventory names the LLC each was acquired from, but the current leaseholders and any purchase prices were not established from a document.
- Caterpillar's lease terms (term, purchase option) are in a 'Caterpillar Triple Net Government Property Lease Excise Tax' document listed on Rio Nuevo's site, whose page carried no readable file.
- State trust acreage inside the city is a centroid test of the Department's parcels against the County's City boundary and counts straddling parcels whole; it is an approximation.
- Builder figures exclude everything held through title-agency land trusts, which on the Pima roll is a large share of subdivision land; the beneficiaries are not published and are not named here.
- Licence and commercial use. Pima County GIS grants no reuse licence and says the open-data service 'is not intended for use as a service within another public-facing application'; the State Land Department's layer is licensed for non-commercial purposes only and refers commercial users to A.R.S. 39-121.03 (treble damages for commercial use of a record obtained for a non-commercial purpose). This record quotes single facts and aggregates and reproduces no rows; republish stays false.
Sources
- Parcels - Regional (paregion): owner name and mailing address (MAIL1-MAIL5), legal description, recording date, full cash and limited values for every tax parcel; 179,266 parcels in the City of Tucson; refreshed nightly, layer edited 12 Oct 2026 — Pima County Information Technology Department - GIS (with Pima County Assessor attributes) · openA
- GIS Library metadata - Parcels - Regional ('The MAIL1 through MAIL5 fields contain the owner name and mailing address'; feature count 448,401; second source Pima County Assessor AsrData and Tax Assembly) — Pima County GIS · openA
- Recording Fees (last revised 15 Apr 2022) — Pima County Recorder · openA
- Public Records Research (free search; watermarked unofficial images free) — Pima County Recorder · openA
- Web Subscription Types and Fee Information (bulk daily images and data: $50 set-up, $500 a year; historical bulk $8,000) — Pima County Recorder · openA
- Bulk Access Account Agreement (revised 27 Oct 2025) — Pima County Recorder · openA
- A.R.S. 11-1133 - Affidavit of legal value — Arizona State Legislature · openA
- Jurisdictional Boundaries; Indian Nations; Davis Monthan Air Force Base (boundary layers) — Pima County GIS · openA
- Development and Disposition Agreement (1 S. Church Avenue), with the Hotel and Office GPLET leases (2020) — Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District · openA
- 1 S. Church (project page) and "Rio Nuevo Advances Hotel Plan for 1 South Church" (19 Dec 2019) — Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District · openA
- HRPT Properties Trust - Form 8-K (Oct 2002), statement of revenues for Unisource Energy Tower acquired 27 Feb 2002 — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · openA
- Building Permits Survey - CBSA annual 2025 (cbsa2025a.txt), Tucson AZ CBSA 46060 — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- Building Permits Survey - West Region places annual 2025 (we2025a.txt), Tucson city — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- Arizona State Trust Land Surface Parcels (feature service, updated monthly) — Arizona State Land Department · openA
- Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District - Financial Statements, year ended 30 June 2025 (audited) — Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District · openA
- Rio Nuevo Board Authorizes $43M in Financing for Caterpillar's Tucson Mining Center (29 Sep 2017) — Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District · openA
- City of Tucson Real Property Inventory (use status incl. "GPLET LEASE", acquired-from, responsible department) — Pima County GIS (City of Tucson data) · openA
- 5151 Broadway tower gets makeover (7 Jan 2010) — Arizona Daily Star (tucson.com) · openA
- Pima County Courthouse Renovation Honored as Public Works Project of Year (21 Jun 2022) — BizTUCSON · openA
- American Homes 4 Rent - Form 10-K for 2025 (Schedule III, single-family properties by market) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · openA
- EastGroup Properties - Form 10-K for 2025 (Schedule III, Tucson) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · openA
- About the University of Arizona ("Established in 1885") — University of Arizona · openA
- Building Permits Survey - county annual 2025 (co2025a.txt), Pima County FIPS 04/019 — U.S. Census Bureau · openA