Weidner Investment Services Acquires 332-Unit Alta Phoenix for $59M

PHOENIX-Making its first core commercial real estate buy, aggressive multifamily property investor Weidner Investment Services acquired the three-year-old, 332-unit Alta Phoenix Lofts for $59.5 million. The Kirkland, WA-based buyer beat out offers from institutional investors to acquire the class A, high-end CBD asset from its developer, Wood Partners of Atlanta, GA.

CBRE vice chairman Tyler Anderson tells GlobeSt.com that multifamily properties completed in 2008 and 2009 have recovered enough in value so developers such as Wood Partners can start putting them on the sales block. Anderson, who represented Wood Partners with CBRE colleagues vice chairman Sean Cunningham and associate Asher Gunter, goes on to say that Alta Phoenix Lofts at 600 N. Fourth St. attracted institutional offers – with Weidner Investments being the only private company putting in a bid.

“He’s been the most active, prolific buyer in the region during the past two years,” Anderson notes, explaining why Weidner Investments’ offer was accepted by the seller. During the past 25 months, Weidner Investments acquired close to 7,000 units throughout Arizona. The buyer’s M.O. typically focuses on suburban quality assets, but the 93% occupied Alta Phoenix Lofts offers approximately 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, 3,000 square feet of which will be dedicated to Weidner Investments’ regional office. The asset was purchased with help from $38.6 million in financing arranged by NorthMarq’s Denver office.

There is plenty of upside potential for the buyer in this commercial real estate transaction. Downtown Phoenix is starting to see some activity, with infrastructure upgrades, the addition an Arizona State University downtown campus and renovation of the civic center. “There’s still a market recovery story in Phoenix; rents are still below what they were for the entire market,” Anderson says. “He’s buying it at below replacement cost, below peak rents and in a submarket in which billions of dollars have been spent on infrastructure.”