Gary Walker, president of SCM Real Estate Services started prospecting the deal last year when the city shut down Gold's over a tax dispute at the 1005 Skyline Drive facility, owned by Danbury Partners II Ltd. of Austin. With the business closed, Walker and other members were told to drive across town to the chain's other facilities.

After doing some footwork to find the owner, Walker took the deal to the YMCA, which leases 15,000 sf in nearby Landmark Village at 2301 N. Collins St. He tells GlobeSt.com that the first offer was placed in October for the 32,100-sf building on 1.5 acres, tucked into a pocket with a Barnes & Noble, closed Harrigan's and Chili's at the intersection of Copeland Road and Interstate 30 at the edge of the city's top retail corridor. Danbury acquired the building in December 2002, the final component to a top-draw corner that he started to assemble in the mid- to late 1990s.

Despite the high-profile location, the property's assessment is $1.3 million. A check with other brokers in town say the off-market deal closed for considerably more than the assessment.

According to Walker, Danbury first tried to convince the Y to lease even though it owns two other Arlington branches. When the dust settled on the talks, the deal included a permanent cross-access parking agreement and used work-out equipment with a current value of $200,000, says Walker, who was negotiating against Danbury's in-house broker Paul Buller.

The YMCA placed new debt with a Bank of America program for non-profit organizations, budgeting $400,000 for renovations. Architects are being interviewed to retool the design to make public areas ADA-compliant and incorporate an elevator for second-floor access. The makeover plan, including cosmetic changes inside and out, should take six months to complete, says Walker, who's charged with working out the early-out from a Landmark Village lease that expires midyear 2005.