CHANDLER, AZ-A 34,295-sf shopping center, which includes two vacant pad sites pegged for future sale or development, sold for $8.1 million to Greenwood Village, CO-based GDA Real Estate Services. The firm picked up the three-year-old center, the Provinces, from Regency Centers Corp., the Jacksonville, FL-based REIT which also developed the property. The 92%-occupied Provinces, located at the northeast corner of McQueen and Ray roads, is anchored by a 55,256-sf Safeway grocery that was not part of the transaction.

GDA is led by principal Gary J. Dragul, who already owns a number of properties in the Phoenix area and primarily invests in retail and office properties "for the long term," according to a source close to the deal. Dragul was on vacation and could not be reached for comment at deadline.

Those vacant pad sites could either be sold or developed at a later time, Bob Young in CB Richard Ellis' Phoenix office tells GlobeSt.com. Young, along with Steven Brabant, Glenn Smigiel and Rick Abraham represented the seller. Regency hadn't yet developed or sold the pads because it "just hadn't found the right buyers to take them down," says Young.

But when the time is right, those pads may go readily, judging from the interest in the shopping center itself. "We had quite a few people vying for it," says Young, adding that buyers were apparently eager to get property in the fast-growing Chandler submarket, which has upper-middle-class demographics and an abundance of new housing. The CBRE team brought in 10 bidders on the property and then went back to the top five for best and final offers, when GDA came in as "one of the most aggressive buyers" offering a quick close and fast due diligence, points out Young, who says the property sold for "pretty close" to its asking price.

All told, the shopping center was on the market for about five months from initial marketing to closing. GDA was self-represented in the transaction. Tenants at the Provinces are signed to leases ranging from two to six years and are paying market rent, about $18 to $21 per sf, says Young. They consist of a mix of local, regional and national players, including small restaurants, a SuperCuts hair salon and a postal store.