PHOENIX – A subsidiary of Griffin Opportunities has acquired a 145,000-square-foot flex-office showroom development in the Phoenix submarket of Deer Valley for $21.6 million. The building is located at 2851 W. Kathleen Road. The 9.5-acre property was developed in 1988 and renovated in 2009. It is fully leased to building technologies company Climatec. The subsidiary was represented by Ben Prater of Colliers International. The seller, Intravest 2851 Kathleen LLC, was represented by Bob Lundstedt and Chris Rogers of Daum. This is Griffin Opportunities’ first investment in Deer Valley. It also represents the largest transaction in the Deer Valley submarket so far this year, according to Daum.
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. – SheKnows has leased 20,000 square feet at Element at Kierland, a 55,268-square-foot office building in Scottsdale. The space is located at 14614 N. Kierland Blvd. The women’s lifestyle media platform will use this space as its corporate headquarters. SheKnows was represented by Clint Hardison of Keyser. The landlord, Montana Avenue Capital Partners, was represented by Luke Walker, Dave Carder and Eric Schultz of CBRE’s Phoenix office.
PHOENIX – A 20,040-square-foot industrial building in Phoenix has sold to Air Services International for $2.3 million. The building is located at 1025 E. Salter Drive within Turner Spectrum Ridge. The seller, Turner Real Estate Investments, was represented by Eric Bell and Mike Ciosek of Voit Real Estate Services’ Phoenix office.
TEMPE, ARIZ. – Regional Acceptance Corp. has leased 40,000 square feet of space at Papago Technology Center in Tempe. The space is located at 1700 N. Desert Drive. Regional Acceptance is a division of BB&T Bank. It is a national auto finance company. Regional Acceptance was represented by JLL’s Jason Moore and Keith Lammersen. The landlord, WDP Partners, was represented by CBRE’s Bryan Taute.
PHOENIX — Avenue 25 Apartments has received a $24.8 million bridge loan from Capital One Multifamily Finance (formerly Beech Street Capital). The 254-unit community is located at 18250 North 25th Ave. in Phoenix. Drew Anderman and Alan Blank of Meridian Capital Group negotiated the three-year balance sheet bridge loan on behalf of the borrower, TruAmerica Multifamily. The loan features a fixed, LIBOR-based interest rate, two one-year extensions and one year of interest-only payments.
PHOENIX — Elontec has leased 28,231 square feet of space at Freeport Industrial Center in Phoenix. The center is located at 5502 W. Buckeye Ave. The female-owned office furniture, relocation and cabling company will be consolidating and relocating from nearby 5402 W. Roosevelt Street. The new lease brings the 103,400-square-foot center to full occupancy. Elontec was represented by Ted Liles of Cresa. The landlord, Environmental Development, was represented by Justin LeMaster, Mike Gilbert and Paul Sweetland of Cushman & Wakefield’s industrial division.
TEMPE, ARIZ. — Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen will open a new 23,000-square-foot location at Elliot Plaza in Tempe. The new space will be located at the southwest corner of Elliot Road and Priest Drive. Popeyes’ second Tempe location is scheduled to open by the end of this year. The chain was represented by Velocity Retail Group. The landlord, TPP JV Maricopa LLC, was represented by Cliff Johnston, John Appelbe, Brad Douglass and Chris Hollenbeck of Cassidy Turley. Popeyes was founded in New Orleans in 1972. It is the world’s second largest quick-service chicken concept.
MESA, ARIZ. — American Traffic Solutions has leased Building One at Waypoint office campus in Mesa. The building is located near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and Mesa Riverview, on the borders of Mesa, Scottsdale and Tempe. Waypoint office campus will be a two-building, Class A office campus. The second 150,000-square-foot building will soon be under construction. The landlords, Lincoln Property Company and Harvard Investments, are represented by CBRE’s Dave Carder, Luke Walker and Eric Schultz.
While the industrial recovery in the Phoenix area has been slow, market indicators show signs of steady improvement. Average rental rates for the Phoenix metro industrial market have remained consistent, hovering around $0.52 per square foot for the past year. In the Southwest Valley, however, which constitutes almost one-third of the entire valley’s industrial space, average rental rates are much lower at $0.36 per square foot. Lease rates at Sky Harbor Airport are averaging about $0.59 per square foot, and $0.66 per square foot in the Southeast Valley. The highest average rental rates are predictably seen in the Northeast Valley, which reported an average of $0.85 per square foot. More than 2.9 million square feet was leased in the second quarter, representing 593 transactions. Leases remain steady compared to the first quarter of this year, but the rate will likely fall short of 2013 when 16.7 million square feet was leased. Vacancy rates continue to fall after the spike seen last year. The second quarter of 2014 reported a 12.6 percent vacancy, down from the high of 13.2 percent in the third quarter of 2013. While a positive indicator, vacancy rates in the industrial sector swing on such a pendulum …
The Phoenix metro economy continues to outpace the nation in job growth, even though 2014 has taken on a slower pace than last year. Much of the 2013 job growth occurred in education, healthcare and financial services. The latter has been a particularly strong growth industry for Phoenix, with 7.2 percent job growth in 2013, versus overall job growth of 2.8 percent. Overall job growth for Phoenix is forecast to be 3.2 percent this year. Despite the job growth and the cautiously optimistic outlook from most within the retail industry, new retail development is still very limited. Unlike in the past when the anchor was a traditional grocery or discount store, much of the development today is anchored by non-retail traffic generators. This includes office and apartment developments, such as new retail space planned for SkySong at Scottsdale and McDowell roads. There are also several ground-floor retail opportunities at the newest mid-rise apartment developments around Scottsdale Fashion Square, Arizona State University and the area on the northern edge of Downtown Phoenix near Roosevelt and Central. Additional retail is planned adjacent to the newest Village Health Club at Ocotillo/Alma School Road in south Chandler. Retail and hospitality developments have been proposed …