Iowa State has no immediate plans to sell the Dairy Teaching Farm at 2602 Mortensen Road, which has been vacant since its closing in October 2003.

However, the ISU Foundation’s sale of 53.24 acres of land west of the farm is pending to Hunziker Land Development, a branch of Hunziker & Associates. Hertz Real Estate Services was in charge of the sale.

The land located between Mortensen Road and U.S. Highway 30, which the College of Agriculture had leased from the ISU Foundation for growing grain as feed for the teaching farm’s livestock, was sold because Iowa State determined it no longer had use for it.

“Because of the changes at the dairy farm, the foundation decided to sell it,” said Brian Meyer, director of college relations for the College of Agriculture.

Chuck Winkleblack, vice president of Hunziker & Associates and manager of Hunziker Land Management, said Hunziker placed the highest bid on the land in a Jan. 5 auction held by Hertz Real Estate Services.

Jason Menke, assistant director of communications for the ISU Foundation, said he could not divulge the selling price of the land.

“We cannot disclose the selling price until the sale is final and complete out of respect for the purchaser’s interests,” he said.

Although the land’s actual selling price cannot be disclosed, the land’s worth would likely be assessed at more than $26,000, according to Story County assessor records.

Records show the sold land was split into two parcels in December 2003.

The parcels are called H and F, with H being the larger of the two parcels at 39.51 acres.

Dave Harvey, deputy auditor for real estate for Story County, said Parcel H was assessed at $19,900 for the 2003 fiscal year. Parcel F will not have an assessed value until the next fiscal year begins in July.

Menke said the split occurred because the university was no longer using the land, while the rest of the larger parcel was still in use.

“From an assessed value standpoint, the prices of the plots would be comparable,” said Joe Melcher, senior appraiser for the Story County Assessor’s Office.

Melcher said the market value of the land is likely to be much higher than its assessed value, however.

“I’m kind of anxious to see how much those [plots of land] sold for,” he said.

Currently the land is zoned for agricultural use, but Winkleblack said Hunziker is planning on building multifamily residences, such as apartments and townhouses, there.

The development will be directly south of land owned by the Ames Community School District, where the city is planning to build a new middle school.

“We knew the middle school was going to be there soon, but we would have built there regardless,” Winkleblack said. “It didn’t make us more or less excited to build there.”

Before Hunziker can build, it must petition the city for annexation of the property into the Ames city limits and have the land rezoned for residential use.

“We have a meeting with the city later this week,” he said. “We hope to get started developing it this summer.”

Tim Fevold of Hertz Real Estate Services said the sale of the land is tentatively scheduled to be finalized in late February.