Stakes Top $35M for Retail-Office Portfolio

PHOENIX-Beating out 25 other bids during a 30-day marketing period, a Los Angeles-based investment group has won bragging rights to a 344,903-sf, four-property portfolio for $35.4 million in an all-cash transaction.

Buyer Dobson Bay Club II LLC, which has been active in the market for 18 months, was chosen partly because it had 1031 exchange money to invest and acted quickly. "He put up a substantial amount of money in a short period and did a quick due diligence," says Jan Fincham, principal with Lee & Associates Arizona in Phoenix, who brokered the deal with principals Patrick Dempsey and Kevin Kopp.

The seller, D. Wong & Associates of Los Angeles, acquired the four properties in the early 1990s. It sold the portfolio to reinvest in California properties.

"The buyer bought this for the upside," Fincham tells GlobeSt.com. "There are some vacancies and he felt the rents were below market. Some of the leases are rolling too so there's an opportunity to bump up income there." The buyer plans to upgrade and refurbish the portfolio. The amount that will be spent wasn't available by publication time.

Fincham says the portfolio was offered in its entirety, with no one-offs considered. "Even with that, we got 26 offers. I think the seller did okay from this," Fincham adds.

Fincham says Dobson Bay Club is searching out other investment opportunities in the market. It recently paid $7.6 million for Gainey Ranch Town Center at 7704 E. Doubletree Ranch Rd. in Scottsdale.

Dobson's newest shopping centers are the 106,621-sf College Park at 3501 E. Camelback Rd. in Phoenix; 67,880-sf Pecan Grove Shopping Center at 575 W. Warner Rd. in Tempe; and 113,818-sf Northpoint Village Centre at 1138 N. Higley Rd. in Mesa. College Park is fully leased; Pecan Grove, 87% occupied; and Northpoint, 75%. The 20-year-old portfolio's lone office piece is the 56,584-sf Scottsdale Business Center at 133402 N. Scottsdale Rd. in Scottsdale. It is 64% occupied.