SCOTTSDALE, AZ-A two-year-old, 97%-occupied shopping center in North Scottsdale traded hands for $13.1 million, as developer Cole Properties Inc. sold the Shops at Pinnacle Peak to buyer Leisure Lane Partners LLP of Minnesota. The center racked up at least 10 offers from interested buyers during a six-month marketing period, culminating in a 60-day escrow for the eventual acquirer.

Developed in 2002, the 41,870-sf center is occupied mainly by local, high-end tenants on staggered three- to five-year leases, says Jan Fincham with Phoenix-based Lee & Associates Arizona. Fincham, along with colleague Patrick Dempsey, represented the seller--under a holding company called Pinnacle Peak Center LLC--and brought the buyer to the table.

Fincham tells GlobeSt.com that the sale includes an outparcel of about 11,000 sf that the buyer plans to develop "immediately." He says the site could hold 6,500 to 7,000 sf of additional retail. "He'll either market it as a build-to-suit or build as a multi-tenant property," he says. The buyer plans a long-term hold of the property, he adds.

The center attracted intense attention from the marketplace because of its location, which is smack-dab amid the high-end demographics of Scottsdale and not far from a regional mall planned by Westcor at the junction of the Loop 101 and Scottsdale Road, says Fincham. There also is a "lack of developable land" in the immediate area. "We could have sold it immediately, but the seller wanted us to put it through its paces and get more offers so it could get exposed and so we could get a good feel for its value," Dempsey explains.

Adding to its allure to potential buyers, the center is adjacent to the nearly completed Hayden-Miller Parkway, which will feed traffic on and off Loop 101 when it opens in September. The center, positioned near a full-diamond interchange, has a roster of tenants that are mainly "high-end, boutique-type" retail operations like a spa, salon, rug store and women's gym.