Seattle Buyer Pays $202 per SF for Scottsdale Prize

The all-cash offer by North Creek Business Park LLC--just $200,000 shy of the $5.5 million asked by seller, California-based Wildwood Hills Development--puts the per-sf price for the 7496 E Terra Buena Lane property at $202 in a market where comparable properties sell in the $120 per sf to $160 per sf price range. Patrick Dempsey, with Lee & Associates' Phoenix office, tells GlobeSt.com that the price reflects not only the hot Scottsdale market, but the frenzied activity among exchange buyers as they compete for limited properties in booming growth markets.

"There's a lack of properties on the market right now and there is tremendous pressure all over the Western United States from people who have sold properties," says Dempsey. "They want to place their money in good economies and that means Phoenix."

The Scottsdale Airpark is among the most sought after areas, primarily because it's located in one of the Valley's most affluent neighborhoods. "The Airpark generates the highest value per square foot in all of the Valley," Dempsey says. "People will overlook high prices just to be in Scottsdale."

Despite the high per-sf costs, Dempsey says North Creek should have no problem leasing the newly acquired asset, now occupied by AT&T. The telephone giant has three years remaining on its lease with two five-year renewal options.

Besides Dempsey, the seller's Lee & Associates team included Jan Fincham, Kevin Kopp and Mark Linsalata. John Werstler with CB Richard Ellis Inc. in Phoenix represented the buyer.