Backup Buyer Steps In With $15M for 1M-SF Campus

GOODYEAR, AZ-Lockheed Martin Corp., of Bethesda, MD, has parted with a 1.1-million-sf, 28-building campus for $14.9 million from Dos Palos Partners. Lockheed has signed a seven-year lease for its 490,000 sf while the multi-tenant balance is tied to pacts with two to seven years left on the terms.

The buildings, about 25 miles west of Phoenix just one mile south of Interstate 10, were in escrow 90 days, Lee & Associates broker Rick Lee tells GlobeSt.com, who along with colleague Stein Koss, represented the seller. Dos Palos Partners, a trio of investors from Phoenix and Denver, stepped up to make the close with a price that met the ask after picking up the deal when a contract by another would-be buyer fell out. Lee, not going into detail, says the property was in escrow for months before the deal soured.

Dos Palos Partners' principals in Phoenix are Don Bennett, a well-known investor, and Jack Carter, both with other Phoenix commercial real estate properties. Lee says the buyers intend a long-term hold of the property. Dos Palos Partners were represented by Dick Basiloff of Phoenix-based Don Bennett & Associates Inc.

Lockheed's sole owned asset in the metro is a high-security campus with manned gates. Lockheed Martin houses government-contracted defense satellite operations in its portion of the campus, which consists of research and development labs plus and office space. "There were parts of the building that the buyers could never even go in, that we could never see," Koss says. "It's very high security."

Developed by Goodyear Tire in the 1940s--which eventually lent its name to the town that sprang up around it--the campus was purchased by Lockheed Martin from Loral Corp. about 10 years ago, according to Lee. The buildings' ages range from the 1940s to mid-1980s.

Besides Lockheed Martin's portion, the balance of the space is industrial and leased to multiple tenants, who occupy 2,000 sf to 200,000 sf, Koss says. "It's small manufacturing guys and a couple of big guys," he says. The largest tenant is the Phoenix-based Cavco Industries Inc., which leases 203,000 sf to manufacture modular homes. Koss says the tenants are remaining in place. Their leases, he says, "are all over the map," with staggered expirations ranging from two to seven years.

The sale included 45 acres of additional vacant land, zoned industrial and flanking the existing facilities. Over time, Dos Palos plans to develop that property. "It's too early to develop right now," Lee says. "They will develop it in the next three to five years."

Goodyear is fast becoming an industrial submarket along Interstate 10. "West you go to L.A., east you bump into Phoenix," Koss notes. "It's the heart of our industrial hub." The former Lockheed Martin campus also is adjacent to Goodyear Airport, a small facility for mostly private planes.