Dual Closings Put Acreage into Schwab Land Bank

PHOENIX-Dual closings put $6.5 million into the coffer of W.L. Gore & Associates of Newark, DE. The back-to-back signings roll eight acres at the Pointe at South Mountain Business Park into a land bank for Charles Schwab & Co. while another equal size tract, with a 51,000-sf building, allows a Phoenix company to relocate.

The San Francisco-based Schwab paid $2 million for the land, which abuts its 300,000-sf complex in the 300-acre park at 48th Street near Baseline Road, Rick Lee, principal of Lee & Associates Arizona, tells GlobeSt.com. And, MDF Pharma Services put up $4.5 million for the mid-1980s building and land, part of Gore’s original contribution to the business park.

The sales culminate 1 1/2 years of selling Gore’s Phoenix holdings. The manufacturer’s large Flagstaff facility made the Phoenix holdings nothing more than surplus, Lee explains.

Throughout this year, Schwab has cut back in many parts of the country including Austin, TX. It’s undoubtedly the strategic positioning adjacent to the Schwab campus, developed in 1995, that kept the Phoenix deal alive. Lee says the teams have spent the past year at the bargaining table. Lady Luck and careful planning got both sales closed on the same day.

Lee says Schwab isn’t planning to build for two years. MDF Pharma, in sharp contrast, is planning to relocate as soon as possible. The laboratory testing firm doubles its space with the acquisition.

The Lee & Associates Arizona team consisted of Lee, William Gosnell, president; William Blake, founding principal; and R. Allen Lowe, principal. The team represented Gore in the transactions. Mike Haenel, senior vice president of Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Phoenix office, handled negotiations for MDF Pharma.