The historic but dilapidated 1930s-era Boise Armory may get a new life, and 200 acres of desert scrub may see industrial activity if two city of Boise deals come to fruition.

The city has searched years for the right people to revitalize the Boise Armory and the city’s underperforming industrial park near the airport. Now two powerhouse California developers are interested: billionaire Silicon Valley real estate mogul John Arrillaga and PowerBar co-founder Mike McCollum. They are the J (John) and M (Mike) of J&M Land LLC.

But to get the city properties into J&M hands, Boise has put together a labyrinthine land sale/exchange plan that was quietly set in motion a month ago.

There are actually two separate deals.

One would let J&M take ownership of the old armory by purchasing 13 acres of city-owned industrial land east of the airport across the freeway from Micron for $500,000, and then swapping the two.

The other deal is similarly structured: J&M would purchase 30 more acres of the city-owned industrial land for $1 million, and then swap them for 200 acres nearby.

All the industrial land is part of the 300 acres along Eisenman Road the city bought during the Brent Coles administration and has been trying to develop or sell for several years.

If the deals come together, the city will be $1.5 million richer.

Why so complicated?

Well, the answer to that is complicated. Basically, the city wants to control who owns the properties, and how they’re developed. In essence, the city has more control over swaps than over sales.

In a public auction, the highest bidder walks away with the property. In an exchange, the city gets to pick who it works with. The city prefers developers with immediate plans that will translate into jobs and taxes over speculators who would hold the land to develop later, said Jade Riley, the mayor’s chief of staff.

How did this plan come about?

Serendipity, sort of. In late September, Mayor Dave Bieter and economic development adviser John Brunelle were at a California conference. With a couple of hours of spare time, they decided to call on McCollum, a major Treasure Valley land owner who is renovating a building near Ann Morrison Park for a Cheerleaders sports bar.

McCollum took Bieter and Brunelle on a tour of McCollum and Arrillaga’s Stanford-area projects, and then to a meeting with Arrillaga — who, like Bieter, is a prominent Basque-American.

The Californians told Bieter how impressed they were with the renovations developer Mike Fery did on the historic 805 W. Idaho building.

“They said if anything else like that comes along they’d like to know,” Brunelle said. “So we told them about the armory.”

Why so quickly?

A couple of weeks later, J&M contacted the city looking for industrial land, saying it might know a Bay-area company interested in Boise. They wanted to move fast.

What happened next?

At 9 a.m. the day after the Nov. 8 election, the Boise City Council held a special meeting in which it unanimously approved two resolutions setting the deals in motion.

The city gave J&M Land six months to close the armory deal and one year to close on the 200 acres.

The morning after Election Day? Isn’t that unusual?

Yes. But city officials say it’s coincidence, not conspiracy.

The council usually meets Tuesdays; that week there was no meeting. Waiting another week was too late for J&M’s timeline.

If there’s nothing to hide, why has everybody been so quiet about what could be a huge deal for Boise?

McCollum and the city don’t want to get too far ahead of themselves.

McCollum says he doesn’t like to talk about maybes; he said he likes to show results. He’s naturally cautious about getting hopes too high until deals are done.

“Hopefully, we can help out your city and do something good for them,” he told the Statesman Friday.

Several city officials said essentially the same thing. It’s early in the process and a lot of questions still need to be answered. Brunelle, specifically, said he is reluctant to talk until he has a finished deal to present.

“They could call right now and say, ‘We don’t want to do either,’ ” Brunelle said. “I would be horribly disappointed, but they could.”

What’s in store for the armory?

The armory deal hinges on whether or not the developers can overcome the building’s complications. The property is in a floodway and has major structural deficiencies.

And a new owner can’t tear it down, even though that’s what most developers who approach the city want to do. One of the city’s requirements is that the Works Progress Administration building at 801 E. Reserve St. be preserved.

“I think it is a neat building,” McCollum said. “Everyone wants to tear it down. We don’t want to tear it down.”

McCollum said it’s too soon to speculate on how the building or the vacant land around it might be used. The armory and adjacent parking lot cover about five acres.

The city’s comprehensive plan, adopted Nov. 29, encourages redevelopment of the armory and the adjacent Fort Boise area as a mixed-use residential and commercial district, with additional green space.

What do the neighbors say?

“This is wonderful news. Finding a buyer with the sophistication and capacity to bring this iconic building back to life is a big win for Boise,” said Erik Kingston, a member of the East End Neighborhood Association’s armory subcommittee, which has worked with the city since 2007 on preservation options.

What will it take for the industrial land deal to come together?

That hinges on J&M finding a tenant for the 200-acre site, which is about the size of Hewlett-Packard’s campus in West Boise.

J&M is based in the Bay Area, and its contacts are in high tech, Brunelle said. J&M may already have a specific tenant in mind.

“It has been years since we have had any activity like this, of this scale,” Brunelle said.

How does the city typically get rid of land it doesn’t want?

Under state law, a city can dispose of surplus property three ways: sell it to the highest bidder at a public auction, exchange it for property of comparable value, or deed it to another government agency.

The city held a public auction for some of its industrial land in October 2010 — and had no interest from buyers then or since. That means it can sell the property on the open market. That’s how J&M can purchase the 13- and 30-acre parcels.

The city has never put the armory or the 200-acre site up for auction, so it cannot sell the land directly to J&M.

But it can exchange it — in this case for land J&M would buy from the city.

“All this complies with state and city policy,” said Riley.

Cynthia Sewell: 377-6428