Desiderio Properties walked off with Jackson Plaza, a fully leased, class B office property at 4600 S. Mill Ave., in Tempe, by coming closest to the $5 million sought by seller Vatnsdal Investments LLC of Kansas City, MO. "They definitely made it a competitive process," Kevin Kopp in the Phoenix office for Lee & Associates Arizona tells GlobeSt.com of the fierce fight among at least six investors to take ownership of the 36,635-sf office building.

The acquisition was the second in the Valley for the Nevada exchange buyer. In February 2003, the firm walked off with the title to Tropic Gardens Plaza, a 24,000-sf, multi-tenant office building in Phoenix, for $1.7 million.

The buyers exchanged an apartment holding in Reno to take its latest Valley acquisition, a recently updated 1987 vintage office building in an unbeatable Tempe location with easy access to Sky Harbor Airport and the Valley's freeway system along with a leased-up tenant roster that includes Wells Fargo Bank, Cyclone Surface Cleaning and alarm company Pro-Alert.

"They're really motivated exchange buyers," Kopp says, adding the investment group recently began shifting its focus from its core Reno market to the metro Phoenix area. Kopp along with Jan Fincham and Pat Dempsey, also with Lee & Associates, handled the deal for both buyer and seller.