The 315,000-sf neighborhood center, located at the intersectionof Camelback Road and 20th Street, was considered to be anunderperforming asset when VGA acquired it in 1998. "We'd sold itto them at the time and it needed a variety of things done," CamStanton, first vice president with CB Richard Ellis Inc. inPhoenix, tells GlobeSt.com. This time around, he was representingthe buyers, Red Mountain Retail Group of Santa Ana, CA and LemieuxInvestments of Paradise Valley, AZ.

Stanton says VGA, which was self-represented, spent eight yearsrepositioning and re-leasing the center. It's presently stabilizedat 90%, with tenants that include Trader Joe's, Marriott CourtyardHotel, Linens 'n Things, LA Fitness and Stuart Anderson's BlackAngus Restaurant.

"Overall, the property is in decent shape," Stanton says. "Thebuyers will have some re-leasing to do. And ultimately if they cangain control of the land from the ground owners, either byacquiring a fee title to the land or making the landowner apartner, they'll have the potential to do either high-rise officeor residential there." The center sits on 24 acres owned by theMars family heirs of M&M/Mars Inc. of Elizabethtown, PA.