TUCSON, ARIZ. — FW Group has purchased the 254-unit Dorinda Vista apartments in Tucson for $27.9 million. The community is located at 7596 N. Mona Lisa Road. Dorinda Vista was built in 1998. Major nearby attractions include Omni Tucson National Resort and the Foothills Mall. The top employers in the area include the Omni resort, the Tucson Mall and Northwest Hospital. Art and Clint Wadlund of Berkadia represented the seller, Prime Residential, in this transaction.
PHOENIX — A joint venture between Parallel Capital Partners and Angelo, Gordon and Co. is set to begin a $25 million renovation of Arizona Center, a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use development in Phoenix. The renovation will include new landscaping, lighting, fixtures, finishes, wayfinding and furnishings. The current parking garage will also be upgraded, and a valet parking element will be added. Construction is set to begin in early 2017, and will take approximately nine months to complete. All tenants at the office, retail and entertainment center will remain open during the renovation. Gensler is the architect in charge of the retail renovation. PdO will work on the interior redesign for One Arizona Center, the office component of the project, and Smith Group JJR is supporting development strategies for the entire property. Tempe-based Zion & Zion will help to rebrand the center.
PHOENIX — Columbia Sussex Corp. has acquired the 353-room Phoenix Marriott Tempe at the Buttes hotel for an undisclosed sum. The recently renovated hotel is located at 2000 W. Westcourt Way. The property contains four dining facilities and 40,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, including a 25,000 square-foot conference space. The complex also includes a resort-style pool, lighted tennis courts, spa, fitness center, volleyball court and helipad. Mark Elliott and Bill Hodges of Hodges Ward Elliott represented the seller in this transaction.
GLENDALE, ARIZ. — Golf equipment and apparel retailer PGA TOUR Superstore recently acquired a Sports Authority location in Glendale, with plans to open a store in the building by January 2017. Glendale represents the company’s fifth Arizona location, joining Chandler, North Scottsdale, Scottsdale and Tucson. Each store is staffed with PGA of America teaching professionals and houses up to 14 state-of-the-art swing simulators and hitting bays, putting green, and in-house club making and repair facility. Golf & Tennis Pro Shop Inc., a subsidiary of AMB Group LLC, operates all PGA TOUR Superstores. The company is headquartered in Roswell, Ga.
One of the newest trends in Phoenix office leasing is the spur in technology and creative space requirements, especially for tenants moving in from Northern and Southern California. These companies are searching for a more favorable market — one with lower labor costs and rental rates, more affordable housing, an educated workforce from which to draw, less traffic and an overall higher quality of life — and the Phoenix area fares well comparatively. I expect this trend to continue, especially in the downtown markets of Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale. Strong leasing activity throughout the Phoenix market this year resulted in robust absorption, with Class B product leading the way. There are numerous large tenants currently in the market seeking to lock up space, which will keep demand elevated throughout the remainder of the year. Healthcare and financial services industries are committing to the market, especially with larger-scale operations centers. Parking needs for these users are 6:1000 and greater. Tempe remains a hot spot for development, with two new high-profile speculative projects underway — the Grand at Papago Park Center (213,055 square feet) and 2100 Rio Salado (102,819 square feet). Two new buildings were completed this quarter at Tempe’s Marina Heights …
As we approach the fourth quarter of 2016, the Phoenix retail market is experiencing its lowest vacancy rates since 2008. Vacancy has dropped to just under 9 percent, a slight improvement from the start of 2015, while rental rates have climbed 0.8 percent to $14.53 per square foot. Positive economic indicators such as population growth, a favorable job market, and new-home construction are all contributing toward a healthy retail market in Phoenix. Consumer confidence continues to rise and demand for retail space has become stronger than previous years. Vacant spaces in core locations are being absorbed by national, regional and local retailers as well. Anchor space activity continues to be geared around value-oriented retailers, fitness users, family entertainment concepts and alternative uses. Quick-serve restaurants are the most active tenants in the market. These concepts include Panera Bread, Starbucks, Café Rio, Pieology, MOD Pizza and Jimmy John’s. In addition, new health-conscious restaurants are starting to look at Phoenix for store openings in 2017, such as Ahi Poki, Eat Fit Go, Grabba Green and Nekter. Supermarkets are driving new development in core trade areas of Phoenix, as well as in high-growth markets. Fry’s Food & Drug has started construction on seven new …
GLENDALE AND CHANDLER, ARIZ. — Meridian Capital Group has arranged $116.4 million to refinance four multifamily properties in Arizona. The four properties were financed in two separate loans. The first loan was for Tela Verde and Tuscany Palms in Glendale. The assets contain a total of 778 units. The properties in the second loan include Alante at the Islands and Laguna Village in Chandler. These assets contain a total of 780 units. Meridian originally financed these four properties as part of a seven-property portfolio acquisition loan on behalf of PB Bell Companies in July 2014. The firm sold the other three properties while repositioning the four assets included in this refinancing. Meridian’s Seth Grossman, Sarah Kuebler and Ryan Gandell arranged the two fixed-rate, non-recourse financing packages.
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. — Exchange Services has acquired The Lodge, a 252-unit luxury apartment community in Flagstaff, for $43.6 million. The community is located on Lake Mary Road just south of the I-17/I-40 freeway interchange. The Lodge was built in 2004. Exchange Services acted as an intermediary for SK5-ELA LLC (Keller Investment Properties LLC). David Fogler and Steven Nicoluzakis of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, Clear Sky Lodge LP, in this transaction. The company is a partnership between Clear Sky Capital and Narland Properties.
The Phoenix industrial market is thriving, despite more than 5.6 million square feet of new construction set to deliver this year. There is enough demand in this market to keep the average vacancy rate at a near eight-year low of 9.7 percent, while absorption is on pace to exceed 6 million square feet for the third year in a row. Tenants have more choices than ever thanks to all this new inventory. Many are making a flight to quality, upgrading to next-generation space featuring wide column spacing and clear heights of up to 36 feet. This is particularly valuable in the West Valley, where large, efficiency-focused, third-party logistics firms and e-commerce companies must maximize how they manage vast amounts of product. Some of these needs are so specific that corporations have opted to custom build, as is the case with the recently completed 400,000-square-foot REI distribution center and the 384,377-square-foot IRIS USA facility, both situated in Surprise. These projects rank as the Valley’s two largest owner-builder completions of the year and have propelled the Northwest submarket — the third smallest industrial submarket in metro Phoenix — into the “hot” category. Meanwhile, owners and builders have gotten more creative in centralized …
CHANDLER, ARIZ. — Aukum Management has purchased the 288-unit Cantera apartments in Chandler for $46 million. The community is located at 2475 W. Pecos Road. Cantera was built adjacent to the Price Road Corridor, the area’s largest high-tech employment hub, in 2002. About 200 units will undergo a renovation. CBRE’s Tyler Anderson, Sean Cunningham, Asher Gunter and Matt Pesch executed the transaction. The seller was Rockwood Capital.