The parcels included 42 acres of high-visibility commercial land northwest of Scottsdale and Bell Road, where Bell Road turns into Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard, and 18 acres northeast of the intersection.
The federal government paid Tucson developer Don Diamond $1 million and gave him the Phoenix-Scottsdale parcels in exchange for about 450 acres that was added to Saguaro National Park.
It was among several deals involving Diamond's Rocking K Holdings and the national park.
Diamond's Rocking K Holdings sold both of the triangular-shaped properties in 1995 for $5.2 million.
Chris Monson, Rocking K president, said the company sold the two properties immediately at the appraised value and did not make a profit.
"It's a great piece (of land)," Monson said. "I'd love to have it back."
National media reports in USA Today, the Washington Post and the New York Times have examined federal land swaps, backed by McCain, which might have benefited contributors to his campaigns.
The New York Times reported that Diamond and his family have donated $55,000 to McCain's campaigns.
McCain spokesman Jeff Sadosky said the senator supported the Phoenix-Scottsdale land swap based on widespread community support from conservation groups and Tucson-area government officials.
The legislation "brought about the expansion of Saguaro National Park and protected sensitive environmental habitat from development," Sadosky said.
Other members of Arizona's congressional delegation also supported the land swap.
Conservationists in Arizona say they are pleased the issue has surfaced.
"It's helpful that people are starting to take a hard look at these land exchanges," said Sandy Bahr, conservation-outreach director for the Sierra Club in Arizona.
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups in 1990 supported congressional approval of the swap to protect Saguaro National Park.
Land swaps allow federal agencies to add land to national parks, national forests, federal rangelands and other protected areas. In exchange, private developers get public lands that they do not have to bid on.
The Sierra Club and other critics argue that the public is often shortchanged in the deals, which hinge on subjective land appraisals.
Appraiser critical of swap
Robert Grijalva, a former chief appraiser for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation who reviewed the appraisals on the Scottsdale land prior to the 1995 swap, told The Arizona Republic that the federal government was shortchanged by at least $8 million in the deal because of inaccurate appraisals.Grijalva said the original appraisal on the Phoenix-Scottsdale land was for more than $10 million. But his supervisors rejected it and ordered another appraisal that set the value at $5 million by evaluating it as residential rather than commercial land, he said.
The appraisal of the land added to Saguaro National Park was overvalued by several million dollars, Grijalva added.
A federal appraiser for more than two decades, Grijalva was fired before the land swap was completed. He tried to regain his job by filing a whistle-blower complaint, but it was rejected by a federal Appeals Court.
"They wanted this exchange to go through and I was in the way," said Grijalva, 66, of Phoenix, who retired last year from another federal-appraisal job.
A private appraiser, Robert Francey, was hired by the bureau and set the value at $5 million, according to a 1998 Seattle Times story.
What became of the land
In May 1995, two months after the land swap was completed, Triangle/Bell LLC of Phoenix paid Rocking K $3.65 million for the larger parcel on the Phoenix side of Scottsdale Road.Dynamic Development of Phoenix paid the company $1.55 million for the smaller piece, on the Scottsdale side.
Two hotels - Courtyard by Marriott and Springhill Suites - were built on the larger parcel, along with restaurants, shops and apartments. Those hotels sold for $24 million five years ago.
The North Scottsdale Gateway development occupies the smaller parcel. It includes a Residence Inn, a three-story office building, two banks, along with a handful of restaurants and other shops.
Monson said Rocking K agreed to participate in the Saguaro National Park land swap after it was proposed by conservationists.
The late Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz., who left Congress in 1991 and died in 1999, introduced the original bill for the land swap. It was later reintroduced by Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., and McCain, Monson said.
