The financial crash of 2008 had wide-reaching effects, and some of those effects continue today. Fortunately, however, there are signs that the effects are dissipating as the real estate market continues to pick up traction in Arizona. This change is evident in Phoenix following a recent significant real estate transaction.
A major three-tower office development, known as the Biltmore Financial Center and located in the Camelback Corridor of Phoenix, has recently changed hands for a price of approximately $163.1 million. The buyers, AllianceBernstein U.S. Real Estate Partners, based in New York, and ViaWest Group, based in Phoenix, bought the property from Invesco Real Estate, who sold the property on behalf of the State of Florida Retirement Fund.
This transfer of property represents one of the largest real estate transactions since the market crashed, and the biggest sale of multi-tenant offices in the greater Phoenix area since 2007. The office development, roughly 635,000 square feet, sold for approximately $257 per square foot. There are major tenants already in the Biltmore Financial Center, including Northern Trust, Colliers International and Fennemore Craig, and the premises were leased at approximately 84 percent capacity at the time of the sale.
The indications of such a major sale suggest that the Phoenix real estate market is thriving. The brokerage firm handling the sale of the property indicated that the seller received over 150 serious inquiries in connection with the sale, suggesting strong interest in investing in the Phoenix market. Interestingly, the ViaWest Group has been involved in other real estate transactions in the Phoenix area in 2015, including five industrial properties, as well as another office building.
Source: financialbuzz.com, “Arizona’s Biltmore Financial Center Biggest Since Crash,” Danny Abramov, Aug. 3, 2015
