Lowe to Close Phoenix's Biggest Sale

PHOENIX-Lowe Enterprises, a big investment advisor and development company, is closing on the largest single office sale the city has seen this year–a deal valued at about $200 psf.

Los Angeles-based Lowe is representing an unnamedpension fund in the $58-million purchase of 3131Camelback, a two-building office complex thattotals nearly 300,000 sf at the corner of 32nd Streetand Camelback Road. The project was built by Phoenix-based DMB and wascompleted only last year.

The development is 99% leased. Its biggest tenant is financial-services giant Charles Schwab & Co., which occupies more than 100,000 sf in the two buildings.

Lowe’s new acquisition is part of a portfolio of buildings that owner DMBnearly sold to New Jersey-based Mack-Cali Realty lastyear, but that deal fell through when the financialmarkets dropped sharply.

Buyers of office properties in Phoenix aren’t findingvalues in portfolios but in individual buildings, local Insignia/ESG broker Trevor Klinhamer tells GlobeSt.com. Klinhamer and his colleague, Dennis Desmond, helped put the Lowe deal together.

Office space in the Camelback Corridor is among themost prized in the Valley, Klinhamer adds. The vacancy rate at thestart of the third quarter was 10.4% and theasking lease rate for class A space is nearly $30 psf, much higher than the Phoenix area’s overall average.