The lease that came with the sale is valued in excess of $45 million. SpeedFam-IPEC will get another 15 years in the facility with three five-year options. Should the company exercise all of its options, SpeedFam-IPEC would end up in the facility for 30 years.

The campus totals about 250,000 sf in a mix of 113,000 sf of class A office space and the balance dedicated to clean assembly. SpeedFam-IPEC is a Chandler-based supplier of chemical mechanical planarization systems for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

SpeedFam-IPEC president and CEO Richard J. Faubert said in a prepared statement that the sale was completed to strengthen the company's balance sheet. The firm realized $23 million from the sale of the zero-debt facility. "The net proceeds from this sale-leaseback transaction will be used to fund working capital requirements as we ramp our own manufacturing production to meet our customers' growing requirements for advanced chemical mechanical planarization systems equipment," said Faubert.

James Cate, Cameron Kennedy and David Caldwell, all from the Atlanta office of New York City-based Newmark & Co. Real Estate Inc., assisted the seller in the national search, which produced 12 bids. David T. Johnson and Jerry M. Marrell, a Lee & Associates Arizona team in Phoenix, helped negotiate for SpeedFam. According to a source at SpeedFam-IPEC, Newmark handled the national perspective while Lee & Associates served as the local experts. The buyer used an in-house representative to negotiate its interests.

Cate tells GlobeSt.com that the bidder makeup consisted of "entrepreneurial investors with capital dedicated to single-tenant assets who were willing to participate in sub-investment grade credit entities such as this one, local developers, existing landlords and institutionally-backed single-tenant investors.

Instant Insights /

Chandler Firm's Sale-Leaseback Valued at $70M

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