PHOENIX-After a year of negotiations, Gaedeke Group has closed four deals totaling 16,671 square feet at 2800 Tower, bringing the 365,000-square-foot high-rise to 70% occupancy.

Two of the leases are new tenants that have relocated from other buildings in Midtown Phoenix. The new tenants are: law firm Palumbo Wolfe & Palumbo P.C., which committed to 7,061 square feet, and social-services firm Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which took 3,737 square feet.

Two of the leases are renewals: law firm Katz & Bloom P.L.C. re-leased 2,233 square feet and computer consulting firm of Sunturn IT Consulting Group re-upped for 3,640 square feet. Their leases were coming up for renewal, according to Jim Achen, Jr., a senior vice president with Transwestern’s local office.

Achen and William Zurek, also a senior vice president with Transwestern, represented Gaedeke Group, along with vice president Vince Femiano and senior associate Travis Ives. The tenants were represented by Darius Green of Cresa Partners, Chris Brien of LevRose, and Chris Jantz of Cassidy Turley/BRE Commercial.

“More than anything these leases show people are willing to make decisions,” Achen tells GlobeSt. “People who have survived this downturn feel reasonably good that they will continue to survive so they’re moving forward with their leasing decisions. Other folks think that lease rates have come down so dramatically, they want to take advantage of what they perceive as the bottoming of the market.”

Achen says all four tenants shopped the market before committing to 2800 Tower. “They came back to 2800 Tower because of the building’s long-term ownership and the quality of the building,” he explains. “We’ve got a lot of office buildings in Phoenix with financial challenges, and that’s not a problem for this owner or this building.”

Located at 2800 N. Central Ave., the 20-story, class A building was built in 1988. It lost its largest tenant, Mercy Care, when the company needed to expand beyond its 100,000-square-foot footprint and 2800 Tower could not accommodate it.

“We’re continuing to chip away at the vacant space,” Achen says. “We got some positive momentum with these four leases, and we’re into several rounds of negotiating on several large deals.”