Mesa – One year after the company made its first Valley multi-family investment in Glendale, Cortland Partners in Atlanta, Ga. (Steven DeFrancis, CEO) has expanded its reach to the other side of town by paying $62 million ($161,458 per unit) to purchase  The District at Mountain Vista, a 384-unit apartment community located in Mesa. Kaplan Mountain Vista Apartments LP., a limited partnership formed by Kaplan Development LLC in Houston, Tex. (Michael Kaplan, Geoff Simpson, principals) and Westplan Investors in Atlanta, Ga. (Ewoud Swaak, CEO), was the seller. The transaction  was brokered through Dave Fogler and Steve Nicoluzakis of Cushman & Wakefield in Phoenix and Brett Polachek, formerly of C&W, and now with ARA Newmark in Phoenix. Maricopa County records show South 105^th AZ Partners LLC (Cortland entity) acquired the asset with a $40.3 million loan from W&D Interim Lender LLC, formed by Walker & Dunlop LLC in Bethesda, Md. In April 2008, BREW reported a venture formed by Kaplan Development paying $8.555 + million to buy the 19.6-acre site and planning to develop the Mesa complex. Located west of Signal Butte Road and south of Southern Avenue at 1304 S. 105^th Place, the community was completed in 2009. Records show the primary owner in the recent sale was Westplan Preferred Equity Fund Management GP LLC, formed by Westplan Investors. With the acquisition, the privately-held Cortland Partners now owns 796 apartments in two multi-family assets in the Valley. One year-ago, BREW reported the company entering the Phoenix market by paying $60.545 million ($146,954 per unit) to purchase the 412-unit Arrowhead Summit apartments at 18330 N. 79^th Avenue in Glendale. Cortland Communities owns and operates more than 45,000 apartment units in 138 properties spread across 11 states. The company, owners of both conventional and senior housing projects, is looking to buy more apartments in the Phoenix area, as well as other select markets in the U.S. Since its inception in 1995, Westplan Investors has invested $2 billion in real estate, primarily in the multi-family sector. Over the past 20 years, BREW has reported Kaplan developing 611 apartments in two Valley projects, and planning another 962 units in three other Phoenix-area communities. Find out more from Cortland Partners chief investment officer Mike Altman at (404) 591-3587. Talk to Jerry Davis of Kaplan Development’s southwest region at (949) 230-6681. Reach Swaak of Westplan Investors at (770) 390-9378. Contact Fogler and Nicoluzakis at (602) 954-9000. Call Polachek at (602) 952-3833.

Goodyear – Showing confidence in heavy demand from companies interested in locating manufacturing and distribution facilities along the Interstate 10 Corridor in the West Valley to serve markets in the western U.S., DBM Ventures LLC in Phoenix (Dave Sellers, Bret Anderson, Mike Anderson, principals) intends to build a 793,125-square-foot speculative industrial warehouse in Goodyear. The “big box” distribution facility will be developed on a 42.95-acre parcel located less than a mile south of Interstate 10, just south of the southeast corner of Van Buren Street and Bullard Avenue. With the proximity to the freeway and the nearby service retail and restaurants adjacent to the east on Litchfield Road, the Goodyear location met all of the developer’s requirements. “We really like the site,” says Sellers. “With the access, visibility and amenities, (the property) checked all of the boxes.” Maricopa County records show DBM Bullard Van Buren LLC (DBM Ventures company) paid $4,592,686 ($2.46 per foot) to purchase the vacant parcel. KCI Goodyear North LLC, formed by Kent Circle Partners LLC in Scottsdale (Scott Seldin, manager), was the seller in the cash transaction. Tony Lydon, Marc Hertzberg and Riley Gilbert of JLL in Phoenix negotiated the deal. LGE Corp. in Phoenix (Sellers’ company) will serve as contractor and LGE Design Build (another Sellers entity) is designing the project, which is being called The Hub. Construction to start in November, with completion expected by mid-2019. Development cost (land and building) estimated at $50 million. Both the equity and construction financing is already in place. Lydon, Hertzberg and Gilbert have the leasing assignment on The Hub, which will feature 40-foot clear height and a large truck court loading area. While the facility will be divisible to accommodate up to four tenants of just under 200,000 sq. ft., the JLL agents are looking for a single company that would occupy the entire building or at least half of the space. DBM Ventures is joining a host of developers and end user businesses that have been picking the Goodyear area and other locations near the Interstate 10 Corridor to house big box industrial projects. “Arizona continues to win some of the largest manufacturers in the country,” says Lydon, who mentions global food packager Huhtamaki Inc., pet food manufacturers and distributors Blue Buffalo and Chewy, window manufacturer Andersen Corp., glass manufacturer Cardinal IG, and beverage packaging firm Ball Corp. among a group of 20-plus companies that have selected sites in Goodyear and Buckeye for large scale industrial operations (see related story on Goodyear Crossing Industrial Park). The land sold to DBM Ventures is part of a larger parcel that Kent Circle Partners acquired in December 2011 for $4,716,997 ($1.10 per foot). Sources say the remaining 50 acres contiguous to the north is under contract to be sold to a data center operator. JLL is also brokering that sale, which is slated to close by year-end. DBM Ventures has developed numerous commercial properties in the Valley and has several more projects in the works, both in the Phoenix area and in Dallas, Tex. In addition to The Hub, during the next 12 months, DBM Ventures will complete 500,000 sq. ft. of mixed-use entertainment, restaurant and office space in the Valley. Over the years, BREW has reported LGE Corp. developing several million sq. ft. of office, retail and industrial space for its own account, in joint ventures and as a fee developer. Those projects have included spec, build-to-suit and pre-leased developments with LGE Design Build earning awards on several of the buildings. Seldin, who has also done business for decades in the Phoenix area as Seldin Real Estate, is also working to sell a 95-acre site kitty corner to the land sold to DBM Ventures at the northwest corner of Yuma Road and Bullard Avenue. Seldin’s company paid $4,565,750 million ($1 per foot) to buy that land as part 101-acre tract he purchased at year-end 2011. Find out more from Sellers at (480) 966-4001. Talk to Seldin at (480) 951-1800. Reach the JLL agents at (602) 282-6300.

Chandler – A prime parcel at the southeast corner of Chandler Boulevard and the 101 Loop in Chandler that was previously targeted for nearly 1 million sq. ft. of office buildings has been acquired by a Phoenix developer for less than half of the price the seller paid to acquire the property more than a decade ago. VanTrust Real Estate LLC in Phoenix now owns the 20.28-acre parcel after paying $12.22 million ($13.83 per foot) to buy the site. The seller was RG-101 LLC, formed by Rockefeller Group Development Corp. in Phoenix, which is an affiliate of The Rockefeller Group in New York City, N.Y. The sale was brokered by Phil Briedenbach, Paul Sieczkowski, Rob Martensen and Kathy Foster of Colliers International Inc. in Phoenix. Maricopa County records show PHO Chandler 101 LLC (VanTrust entity) acquired the property in a cash transaction. After paying $25.98 million ($28.63 per foot) to buy the acreage in November 2007 and holding the land for almost 11 years, Rockefeller Group threw in the towel and gave up on developing the site. The company’s plans for 101 Chandler with 933,700 sq. ft. of offices in three buildings of 8 to 10 stories, two restaurants and 10,400 sq. ft. of retail space likely will be replaced by a project with a greater variety of uses. VanTrust’s basis in acquiring the land for less than half of what the previous owner paid will allow the company significant latitude in being able to deliver buildings with larger floors and more retail and restaurant options than what was previously contemplated. While the highest and best use for the site is still up for discussion, there is no question about the property’s value given its premium location adjacent east of the Chandler Fashion Center regional mall and the parcel’s frontage along the Loop 101 (Price Road Freeway). VanTrust representatives are already getting calls from interested parties. “We are excited about the inquiries we have already fielded,” says Keith Earnest, who heads up the Phoenix office for VanTrust. “We have not settled on a master plan for the site. The market will dictate what eventually gets built.” What the market brings could be an initial phase build-a-suit of a single office structure, a corporate office campus with multiple buildings or a mixed-use project that may include office, retail, hotel and multi-family components. Having no debt service after paying cash for the dirt, VanTrust does not have a clock ticking that could influence the company to make something happen in short order. Time will tell what comes to be, but companies wanting locations that allow options for live, work and play fits in well with a site that has been described as the “Gateway to Chandler.” VanTrust, which has developed multi-family, industrial and office projects in the Valley over the past year, is most likely to build a mixed-use complex on the newly-acquired Chandler land. After holding onto the property for so long, it is a surprise to some Phoenix-area real estate executives that the deep-pocketed Rockefeller Group would choose this time to sell the acreage. The Rockefeller Group, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd., which is one of the world’s largest real estate investment and development companies. In marketing the tract, the Colliers agents embarked on a nationwide initiative, identified several perspective buyers and then engaged in a highly-competitive series of negotiations with multiple finalists before accepting the best and final offer from VanTrust. Representatives of Rockefeller Group did not return multiple calls from BREW seeking comment on the company’s strategy in deciding to part with what turned out to be excess land. In 2006, BREW reported Rockefeller Group Development Corp. planning to ramp up its investment and development activity in the Valley after taking a two-decade break from making direct investments in the Phoenix area. Over the past dozen years, BREW reported the company developing numerous office and industrial projects and partnering to develop multiple apartment communities in the Southeast Valley. Since 2014 when Earnest was hired as executive v.p. to run the Phoenix office for Kansas City, Mo.-based VanTrust Real Estate (David Harrison, pres.), the company has built a diversified portfolio in the Valley. Two miles west of the newly-acquired site in Chandler, VanTrust recently completed development of a 117,176-square-foot office within the Chandler Corporate Center business park. That two-story office at 350 N. McClintock Drive is part of a 26.7-acre parcel that wraps the northwest corner of Chandler Boulevard and McClintock Drive. VanTrust acquired that property in 2016. Briedenbach is leasing the newly-built spec office and VanTrust plans to use the remaining 14 acres of that tract to develop another spec office of about 80,000 sq. to 100,000 sq. ft. and 2 to 3 acres of retail pads along Chandler Boulevard that are suitable for about 10,000 sq. ft. of retail shops and restaurants. Last year, VanTrust opened the 230-unit Peak 16 apartments that the company developed at the southeast corner of 16^th and Colter streets in Phoenix. In early 2019, VanTrust intends to start development on a 600,000-square-foot industrial facility about two miles south of Interstate 10 at the northwest corner of Van Buren Street and Perryville Road (187^th Avenue) in Buckeye. That distribution building is being developed in the first phase of a 2.3 million-square-foot industrial park planned for a 151-acre tract that VanTrust purchased three years ago. VanTrust has also been active in Southern Nevada, developing more than 5 million sq. ft. of e-commerce and general distribution facilities in the past 2 ½ years. Larry Van Tuyl, who is the principal of VanTrust, has long been an owner of real estate in the Valley. VanTrust’s ownership and capital base has been associated with Van Tuyl Group, which had been the nation’s largest privately-held automotive dealership group until March of 2015 when the portfolio of dealerships were sold to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK, Warren Buffett, chairman). Find out more from Earnest at (602) 732-4220. Talk to Mark Singerman of Rockefeller Group Development in Phoenix at (623) 930-5082. Call the Colliers agents at (602) 222-5000.

BIXBY LAND CO. BOLSTERS VALLEY PORTFOLIO . . . BUYS 335,459 SQUARE-FOOT INDUSTRIAL PROJECT Phoenix – Bixby Land Co. in Newport Beach, Calif. (Aaron Hill, pres.) has added to its real estate holdings in the Phoenix market by paying $27.223 million ($81.15 per foot) to buy a 335,459-square-foot industrial building at 2300 S. 51^st Avenue in Phoenix. The sellers were a group of three tenant-in-common entities led by Pacifica Real Estate Group in Santa Barbara, Calif. (Russell Fraser, Robert Gibbs, managing members). Will Strong, Mike Haenel, Andy Markham and Phil Haenel of Cushman & Wakefield in Phoenix negotiated the deal. The distribution facility, called Riverside @ 51^st Avenue, is 95 percent occupied. Markham and the Haenels have the leasing assignment, which has 18,016 sq. ft. available in a single bay. Bixby Land Co., a privately-held real estate investment trust (REIT), owns more than 6 million sq. ft. of industrial, R&D and office buildings in select markets located in the Western U.S. Over the past 10 years, BREW has reported Bixby Land Co. purchasing numerous industrial properties in the Phoenix area. Located south of Buckeye Road, the 19.38-acre Riverside @ 51^st Avenue was developed in 2007. Maricopa County records show BLC Industrial Venture I - CO 3 LLC (Bixby Land Co. entity) acquired the asset in a cash transaction. The TIC sellers included: BP Riverside LLC, as to an undivided 43.73379 percent interest; WFG Riverside LLC, as to an undivided 40.06358 percent interest, and Pacifica Riverside LLC, as to an undivided 16.20263 percent interest. In a sale recorded at year-end 2007 and reported by BREW in January 2008, Pacifica Real Estate Group paid $26.8 million ($79.89 per foot) to buy Riverside @ 51^st Avenue. In March and May of 2008, the company later resold 84 percent interest in the industrial property to the two TIC companies, both from Santa Barbara. WFG Riverside LLC (Derek Westen, Peter Westen, managers) paid $11,057,548 to acquire its 40 + percent ownership interest and BP Riverside LLC (Daniel Hochman, principal) paid $12,070,527 to purchase its 43 + percent ownership interest. Find out more from Michael Severson, Bixby Land Co. chief acquisitions officer, at (949) 336-7000. Talk to Gibbs of Pacifica Real Estate Group at (805) 899-2400. Reach the Cushman & Wakefield agents at (602) 954-9000.

GREEN LEAF LANDS NEWLY-BUILT MIDTOWN PHOENIX APARTMENTS IN $76.15 MILLION PURCHASE

Phoenix – In its largest property acquisition in the Valley to date, a fund managed by Green Leaf Partners Inc. of Danville, Calif. (Mike O’Neil, Thomas Hall, Farrokh Billimoria, co-founders) paid $76.15 million ($271,964 per unit) to purchase the 280-unit Broadstone Arts District apartments at 222 E. McDowell Road in Phoenix. The luxury apartment community, which has been renamed Green Leaf Arts District, is now controlled by Green Leaf Arts District LLC (Green Leaf Partner entity).   The leasehold interest was sold by CRP/AR Broadstone Arts District Owner LLC, formed by Alliance Residential Co. in Phoenix (Bruce Ward, Bob Hutt, Jay Hiemenz, partners). Tyler Anderson, Sean Cunningham, Asher Gunter and Matt Pesch of CBRE in Phoenix brokered the deal. The 3.9-acre property, located adjacent east of the Phoenix Art Museum at the northeast corner of McDowell and Alvarado roads, is currently being held in abatement by the City of Phoenix through a GPLET (Government Property Lease Excise Tax). Maricopa County records show Green Leaf Arts District LLC took control of the property with a $49.478 million Freddie Mac loan issued by CBRE Capital Markets Inc. in Houston, Tex. Governments (including cities) essentially are exempt from paying property taxes and pay an excise tax instead. The GPLET is considerably less than what the property tax would be and cities use it as an incentive to encourage development. In a GPLET deal, the developer leases the property from the governmental agency for what is typically a nominal amount. With an abatement, taxes and assessments are suspended for a specific period of time. With the investment, the privately-held Green Leaf Partners now has an interest in 936 apartments in three Valley communities. Alliance Residential, among the nation’s largest developers of multi-family properties, developed Broadstone Arts District in 2017. Get more from O’Neil at (925) 362-1476. Talk to Tom Lewis of Alliance Residential at (602) 778-2800. Reach the CBRE agents at (602) 735-5555.