In closing the deal, Morgan Realty & Management Inc. of Phoenix got an industrial building at 3011 S. 52nd St. that was once used as a call center for locally based Avnet Inc., a wholesale distributor of electronic components. "This is a building that wasn't sure what it wanted to be. It was an industrial building with a lot of industrial features, but a built-out office inside," says Andy Markham, vice president with Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial LLC's industrial group's Phoenix office. He and colleague Mike Haenel, represented both the buyer and the seller, Santiago Villa LP from San Diego.
Markham tells GlobeSt.com that the seller paid $2 million in 1997 for the 27-year-old building, bringing it to market a year ago for $4.85 million. He says that, despite the building's identity crisis, the seller received multiple offers. "It sat for awhile, then it started to generate interest," he says, "and once we came to terms with the buyer, we received four more solid backup offers."
Morgan Realty ended up with the building not only because it met the seller's terms, but it's willing to invest in improvements and upgrades, Markham says. "They'll put some money into it to dress it up and make it pretty. The direction is to try to get one tenant," he adds. "I'm guessing they'll probably put close to a million into this for upgrades."
As for the seller, the transaction marks the close-out of its one and only asset in Phoenix. "I think the seller's focus and interest was in other markets," Markham speculates.
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