Sunstate Equipment Co. LLC the country's 10th largest supplier of heavy-duty, rental equipment, sparked heavy interest when it put the single-tenant industrial properties on the market about two months ago, drawing at least 10 "very competitive" offers from entities ranging from publicly traded REITs, a National Canadian merchant builder and private institutional buyers, Ray Fontaine in Marcus & Millichap's Phoenix office tells GlobeSt.com.

Princeton, NJ-based Sovereign Investment Co.'s $36.4-million offer took home the prize, however, besting the competition with a near-priced bid and a proven ability to perform.Fontaine says the deal, which came together in 45 days, gave the buyer strategically located properties in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Oklahoma and Texas.

"The buyer was attracted by the unique characteristics of the properties--smaller buildings ranging from 4,000 sf to 11,000 sf on larger parcels of land between two and 10 acres located in high growth areas," Fontaine says of the buildings, almost all of which have freeway frontage or frontage on major arteries in master-planned business parks. "All of the demographics were very strong for all the locations, so there was an opportunity for buyers to realize over 200% return on their investment and still have residual value in the land for redevelopment. That was really the biggest unique aspect of the offering."