THE MONROE BUILDING IN DOWNTOWN PHOENIX SOLD TO VIAWEST VENTURE FOR $29.82 MILLION

Phoenix – Continuing with its strategy to purchase and reposition value-added properties in the Valley, a joint venture formed by ViaWest Properties LLC in Phoenix (Gary Linhart, Steven Schwarz, principals) paid $29.82 million ($116.72 per foot) to buy The Monroe Building located in downtown Phoenix. The 255,477-square-foot office project, located at 111 W. Monroe Street, was acquired by ViaWest and GEM Realty Capital Inc. in Chicago Ill. (Barry Malkin, Norman Geller, Michael Elrad, co-founders). 
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The 18-story structure was sold by RREF II-PE Tower LLC, a venture formed by Rialto Capital Advisors LLC in Miami, Fla. (Jeffrey Krasnoff, CEO), and Ironline Partners LLC in Phoenix (Bob Karber, Tim O’Neil, Olen Petznick, Earl Petznick, principals) and Valley investor John Graham.
The deal was brokered by Chris Toci and Chad Littell of Cushman & Wakefield in Phoenix, and Michael Crystal of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank in Phoenix.
The office space is roughly 50 percent occupied. Crystal, who has been leasing the project for the previous owner, says there are leases are out for signature that will increase the occupancy level to about 65 percent.
The property, which covers almost a full city block, was developed in 1964.
Maricopa County records show GVW 111 Monroe Owner LLC (GEM/ViaWest entity) acquired the property with a $33.81 million loan issued by TH Commercial Mortgage LLC, a division of Two Harbors Investment Corp. in New York City, N.Y. (NYSE:TWO).
The new owners have hired Bryan Taute, Kevin Calihan, Tim Watters and Charlie von Arentschildt of CBRE in Phoenix to take over the leasing assignment.
In April 2014, BREW reported the Rialto/Ironline joint venture paying $22 million ($86.11 per foot) to purchase The Monroe Building.
After acquiring the property three years ago, the project was renovated to attract a more diverse group of tenants to complement traditional government and legal office users in downtown Phoenix. Adding move-in ready creative office suites, first floor service retail restaurants and shops and upgrades to the building’s infrastructure have drawn high-growth, innovative and technology-oriented businesses.
The Monroe Building has been described as a “tech hub” and is positioned to keep luring tenants like Integrate Inc., a software developer that relocated from Scottsdale last year and now leases the top floor of the property.
While the Rialto/Ironline venture decided to sell the 111 W. Monroe Street office, Ironline Partners is already reinvesting in the area.

• The group of Valley investors is under contract to buy the historic Ellis Building, which is located at 125 N. 2^nd Avenue and completes the city block that includes the Monroe Building.
• O’Neil of Ironline Partners credits Christine Mackay, Economic Development Director with the City of Phoenix, with helping to bring a new wave of tenants to downtown Phoenix. Over the past few years, ViaWest has been involved in more than $300 million of real estate acquisitions and developments in the Phoenix area. Many of the deals have involved ViaWest buying, repositioning and selling office and industrial projects in the Valley.
• Last week, BREW reported ViaWest completing a $27.65 million ($223.28 per foot) sale of a 123,864-square-foot office project occupied by Amazon that is located on a ground-lease within the Arizona State University Research Park in Tempe.
• In 2011, BREW reported GEM Realty Capital part of a venture that paid $60 million ($109.71 per foot) to buy 546,872 sq. ft. of office buildings within the Pima Center business park on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. GEM Realty Capital, which invests in private-market real estate assets and publicly-traded real estate securities, sold about half of the Pima Center project in 2014.

Learn more from Linhart and Schwarz at (602) 957-8300. Barrie Bloom is the contact at GEM Realty Capital . . . call her at (312) 915-5518.

Talk to O’Neil at (602) 315-8275.

Reach the Cushman & Wakefield agents at (602) 253-7900. Crystal is at (602) 952-3878.The CBRE agents are at (602) 735-5555.