Birtcher Partnership Spends $11 Mil on Class B Office Property in AZ

A venture of San Juan Capistrano-based Birtcher Anderson Realty LLC and Thackeray Partners, out of Dallas, has acquired Tempe Executive Center, an 88.6k sf Class B office property located at 1208, 1232 and 1270 East Broadway in Tempe. It was sold by The Walton Family Trust for $11.05 mil ($124/sf).

Built in 1984 and situated on 6.5 acres, Tempe Executive Center includes three, two-story garden office buildings with connecting walkways. Parking is well allocated around the site providing short walking distances to the tenant spaces. The center is currently 18 percent vacant, while the Tempe submarket stands at approximately seven percent vacant.

The property is located on one of the main commercial arteries linking Tempe with Mesa and Phoenix and is between the cross streets of Rural and McClintock, which are the main thoroughfares connecting Scottsdale with Tempe. The Superstition and 101 freeways are just one mile away, providing quick access to Sky Harbor International Airport and the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. Additionally, Arizona State University, restaurants, hotels and retail are all within close proximity.

Stan Shafer and Laurel Lewis of Grubb & Ellis in Phoenix repped Birtcher Anderson Realty. The seller represented itself in the transaction.

"The partnership was attracted to Tempe Executive Center because Tempe is a supply-constrained market that continues to experience healthy absorption and because this project's occupancy and rents are significantly lower than the rest of the competitive submarket," said Bob Anderson, chief executive officer at Birtcher Anderson Realty. "This submarket is also favored by smaller tenants, which is what this particular property caters to." Anderson added that the property was purchased at basis well below replacement cost.

Birtcher Anderson Realty in conjunction with its local, Phoenix-based affiliate, Birtcher Arizona, has purchased more than 600k sf of office, industrial and retail property over the past nine months and anticipates investing approximately $100 mil in Phoenix-area properties and land for development over the next 12 months. Birtcher Arizona operates more than 1.2 msf of property in the Phoenix region.

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