New Team Takes Over 800,000-SF Office Portfolio

Two deals closed shortly after the changeover although the property owner's local representative isn't saying too much except that Grand Canyon Title will be moving into the 269,091-sf Paradise Village Office Park, a class A property at 11811 N. Tatum Blvd. in Phoenix and attorney Burton Cohen is taking space in the 190,702-sf Gainey Ranch Financial Center, a two-building, class A complex along East Doubletree Ranch Road in Scottsdale. A third deal is awaiting final signatures.

It's widely known in town that the buildings and Kelly McKone went hand in hand for more than a decade. He was the portfolio's in-house broker under the Westcor development flag and then took the assets with him to Insignia/ESG and moved them again three years ago when he joined Cushman & Wakefield of Arizona Inc.

"The quality of ownership of those properties is excellent between Allstate, the Princeton University Endowment Fund and the local ownership group," Jim Wentworth, C&W's senior managing in Phoenix, tells GlobeSt.com. "C&W joins the owners in hoping that as the market improves these older properties will benefit from stronger leasing activity."

The portfolio got its start in the mid-1980s with locally based Westcor's development of Paradise Village Office Park. In 1993, the Gainey Ranch Financial Center, also a 1986 product, was acquired from the Resolution Trust Corp. The following year, the owners bought the Scottsdale Executive Office Park I at 7975 N. Hayden Rd. and Scottsdale Executive Office Park II at 8655 E. Via de Ventura, totaling 251,588 sf of class A space, from Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Newport Beach, CA. The fourth deed rolled in 1995 with the acquisition of the 91,661-sf, class B Westwood Center, built in 1982 at 2222-28 W. Northern Ave. in Phoenix, from Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. of New York City.

The CBRE team includes Steven Brabant, capital adviser, and Stephen Mariani, director of asset services, who is heading up asset management and strategic oversight. Pat Horan and Chris Ackel are handling leasing while Karen Kitchens, senior real estate manager, is overseeing the day-to-day management.

Brabant says the assignment was CBRE's largest catch in 2003. "Assignments this size don't come up that often," he tells GlobeSt.com.

Ackel says there are no major overhauls planned, but the Scottsdale Executive Office Park will be getting a lobby makeover and new landscaping. Office space will run from $16 per sf to $24.25 per sf, full service.