$9M Trade Closes Out Kitchell's Riverpoint Sell-Off

Vatnsdal Investments LLC, like the university, bought the holding at 3025 E. Wood St. from locally based Kitchell Corp. The flex building is fully leased for the long term to the university and Securitas Corp. "For whatever reason, the university didn't buy it. Because of our relationship with Kitchell, we were able to do the deal," Warren Johnston with Cushman & Wakefield of Arizona Inc. tells GlobeSt.com.

Johnston, who brokered the sale along with C&W's Nathan Thinnes, says the trade was negotiated within two weeks for the 61,234-sf structure, built three years ago near the intersection of 32nd Street and Broadway Road. The buyer used 1031 exchange proceeds from the sale of a Jackson Street office building in Tempe and a loan from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Minneapolis.

In January, the university's parent, locally based Apollo Group Inc., paid $11.9 million for two empty office buildings, totaling 147,074 sf, and another $15.1 million for 37 acres at Interstate 10 and 32nd Street in the 70-acre Riverpoint development. The deal also included a 50,000-sf office lease with a seven-year term and $4.3-million payout to take the full sale price to $31.2 million or the largest deal in recent years for the Valley--and all bought to accommodate the school's fast-growing online division. When the site was purchased, a university official said the build-out plan was tentative, but could end up as a pair of 10-story office buildings and as much as 700,000 sf.