MESA, AZ-Falcon Gate Retail LLC, an investment group from Los Angeles, has scooped up Falcon Gateway, 59,223 sf of class A retail space anchored by a 208,000-sf Wal-Mart Supercenter, in a $17.67-million, off-market deal with its developer, Brown, Greenfield and McKellips LLC of Phoenix.

The Bentonville, AR retail giant's super store wasn't part of the deal. Falcon Gateway, completed in 2004 on 7.92 acres at 4505 E. McKellips Rd., is 98% leased. Its roster includes Staples Inc., Payless ShoeSource, Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar, Data Doctors Computer Services, Subway Restaurant, Panda Express, Sleep America and Fashion Bug. None of the leases will be rolling anytime soon, says Patrick Dempsey with Phoenix-based Lee & Associates Arizona.

"We were hired by the seller to find a buyer," says Dempsey, who teamed with Lee & Associates' Jan Fincham and Kevin Kopp to broker the transaction on behalf of both parties. On the other side of the transaction, the three partners already had a steady relationship with the buyer so "we brought them together," Fincham adds.

Fincham tells GlobeSt.com that the seller, as a developer, plans to use the gain to fund future developments while "the buyer is an investor, a real estate investor, with multiple properties in the Phoenix marketplace and Southwest US." He adds the transaction was part of a 1031 exchange. "The buyer sold some property in California and decided to go ahead and place the money in Arizona," he notes.