Historically, most tribes were pushed to the least desirable areas of the country, one of the biggest obstacles to Native real estate development, said Mr. Trevan of Gun Lake Investments. Real estate deals also require access to financing and business divisions that can operate independently — and more quickly — than tribal government. He estimates only about 12 tribes have the governance structures in place to “optimize” economic development outside of gambling.
Ten miles from Scottsdale, Ariz., the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is one of the tribal communities that have built sizable real estate portfolios over the past few decades. (Other examples include the Tulalip near Seattle, the Winnebago of Nebraska, and the Southern Ute in Colorado.)
Through third-party developers and its own development arm, Salt River has built a shopping and entertainment complex, an automotive retail center, a training facility for the Arizona and Colorado Major League Baseball teams, along with corporate office and mixed-use projects.
Set to open in the next two years are a $54 million sports medicine clinic, a 120-bed behavioral health center and a 101,900-square-foot headquarters for Nextiva, one of the nation’s largest business communications companies.
Quannah Dallas, Salt River’s economic development director, credited the community’s success to its “ideal location,” along with investments in physical infrastructure and a database that streamlines complicated land tenure issues.
Ms. Dallas works with other tribes on business issues, reflecting broad agreement that intertribal collaboration is another component to unlocking Native development.
Partnerships give tribes more leverage, Ms. Mitchell said, and they send a broader message to the community about the value of Indigenous projects.
“We want to stay in the communities where we operate,” she said. “We are long-term investors.”
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