BIGGEST Commercial Office Property Deal In Phoenix Metro Market

State Farm Campus at Tempe Marina Heights Hits A High Record In $928M Sales/Lease Back Deal

Tempe – In what will be the biggest commercial office property sale ever recorded in the Phoenix market, a partnership formed by Transwestern Investment Group (TIG) in Houston, Tex. and JDM Partners LLC in Phoenix (Jerry Colangelo, David Eaton, Mel Shultz, principals) is expected to pay $928 million (roughly $457 per foot) to buy the 2+ million-square-foot Marina Heights office project located along Tempe Town Lake in Tempe. Information for this post is freely included from an email received two days ago . . . It's a pretty neat sale/lease back deal: You didn't hear it here but word is that some 'silent'  longtime Valley investors provided almost 70% of the estimated $375 million of equity the ownership partnership has in the investment. A BIGGER chunk of change was kicked-in by Wall Street: More than $500 million of the purchase price is being financed by a consortium of Wall Street investors. State Farm Auto Insurance Co., which occupies all five of the office buildings in the recently completed development, heads up the selling entity in the sale/lease back deal. _____________________________________________________________________ Blogger Note on Sunday 10 Dec 2107: Posting some additional comment excerpts from this article on AZ Big Media https://azbigmedia.com Marina Heights sold in sale-leaseback deal with State Farm Above: At last year's RED Awards, Ryan Companies U.S., Inc. won the Developer of the Year Award and its Marina Heights project won the award for best office project. (Photo by Mike Mertes/AZ Big Media)Real Estate | 8 Dec | AZRE Transwestern Investment Group (TIG) announced Corporate Properties Trust III LP has closed on the acquisition of a 2 million-square-foot Tempe property in a sale-leaseback with State Farm Auto Insurance Co. This transaction resembles the acquisition of the 2.2 million-square-foot State Farm campus in Dallas’ CityLine project last fall and the 591,000-square-foot State Farm campus in Atlanta this summer.  “The closing of the Tempe transaction, the third in a series including Dallas and Atlanta, signals the execution of a strategy State Farm designed as a priority several years ago,” said Larry P. Heard, CEO of the Transwestern family of companies. . .  TIG believes the sale-leaseback structure has benefitted both parties with steady cash flows generated from the long-term lease with State Farm and stable, long-term ownership and management for the tenants. In the Marina Heights transaction, the legal adviser was King & Spalding and Eastdil Secured was the debt capital adviser. ______________________________________________________________________________ The buyer in the sale, which is set to close today, is Corporate Properties Tempe SPE LLC. The member of the buyer is Corporate Properties Trust III L.P., a limited partnership formed by Transwestern and JDM Partners. The seller is SFSR Marina Heights LLC. The members of that company are:  Tempe Office Investment LLC, formed by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. in Bloomington, Ill. S/R Marina Heights LLC, formed by Sunbelt Holdings Inc. in Scottsdale (John Graham, manager)  Ryan Cos. U.S. Inc. in Phoenix (John Strittmatter, manager). According to BREW, Sources say Bill Levine and Andrew Cohn of Levine Investments Limited Partnership in Phoenix are silent partners in the ownership group. Word is the longtime Valley investors provided almost 70 percent of the estimated $375 million of equity the ownership partnership has in the investment. More than $500 million of the purchase price is being financed by a consortium of Wall Street lenders. Multiple efforts by BREW to reach Levine and Cohn were unsuccessful.  ________________________________________________________________ The sale eclipses the previous highest price per foot paid for single tenant, class A office space in the Valley. That record was set three years ago when American Realty Capital Properties Inc. in New York City, N.Y. (NASDAQ:ARCP) paid $110 million ($441.47 per foot) to buy the Freeport-McMoRan Center office project in downtown Phoenix. The 249,000 sq. ft. of office space comprises the top eight floors of a 26-story hotel-office building located at the northeast corner of Central Avenue and Van Buren Street. The property, with an address of 333 N. Central Avenue, also houses the 242-room Westin Phoenix Downtown. That sale, which recorded in November 2014, was brokered by Jim Fijan, who has sold $12 billion in Valley investment properties over the past three decades. “The sale (of Marina Heights) is historic for the price per square-foot, but also for its sheer size,” says Fijan. “The potential for additional large campus transactions in the Metro Phoenix area is strong for all the reasons that the State Farm deal came together: the educated workforce, cost of living and quality of life.” Marina Heights is along the north side of Rio Salado Parkway about one block west of Scottsdale Road adjacent north of Arizona State University and Sun Devil Stadium. As part of the purchase, the TIG/JDM limited partnership assumed a 99-year ground lease on the 20.282-acre site, which is owned by the Arizona Board of Regents. Ryan Cos. and Sunbelt Holdings, co-developers of Marina Heights, completed construction on the project’s fifth and final office structure in April. The LEED-certified buildings, developed from 2015 to 2017, serve as a regional hub for State Farm Auto Insurance. At full capacity, the company expects to have more than 8,000 workers employed in Tempe. State Farm, a high-credit tenant, has leased the property for 25 years.   The 2.031 + million-square-foot campus includes 1.966 + million sq. ft. of office space and 60,000 + sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space and other amenities, including a Mountainside Fitness, Starbucks and Honor Health facility. The project features more than 8,000 parking spaces, including below grade, podium, garage and surface level stalls. The Marina Heights office space is comprised of 1> 347,851 sq. ft. in a 16-story building with six levels of podium parking located at 300 E. Rio Salado Parkway, 2> 575,639 sq. ft. in a 16-story structure at 400 E. Rio Salado Parkway, 3> 245,370 sq. ft. in a 6-story office at 450 E. Rio Salado Parkway, 4> 370,332 sq. ft. in a 9-story structure at 500 E. Rio Salado Parkway 5> 426,902 sq. ft. in a 17-story building that has 7 levels of podium parking located at 600 E. Rio Salado Parkway. DAVIS designed the modern-looking monolithic glass and steel structures. Transwestern Investment Group (Charles Hazen, pres.) is an investment advisor currently managing $3.4 billion of institutional-grade properties on behalf of its discretionary and non-discretionary investors. BREW has previously reported the company and its affiliates buying and selling office and industrial buildings in the Valley, and developing multi-family communities in the Phoenix market. Transwestern Investment Group and State Farm have now completed three sale/lease back deals. (1) In July of this summer, TIG and South Korean investment manager Mirae Asset Global Investments paid $275.4 million ($466 per foot) to buy a 590,926-square-foot office building State Farm occupies in a suburb of Atlanta, Ga. (2) In November 2016, TIG and Mirae joined forces in the $825 million ($375 per foot) acquisition of a 2.2 million-square-foot office project leased to State Farm in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, Tex. The privately-owned JDM Partners has made some significant investments in the Valley with the Wigwam Golf Resort & Spa in Litchfield Park, the Arizona Biltmore Golf Courses in Phoenix, the 33,800-acre Douglas Ranch in the West Valley the Comerica Theatre in downtown Phoenix. The company typically syndicates its investments by raising equity from multiple investors. Last month, BREW reported the company filing a zoning application to develop a nearly 2 million-square-foot mixed-use project called La Via on a parcel in Scottsdale now occupied by the CrackerJax amusement park. JDM Partners has agreed to pay $80 million to buy that 27.94-acre site in a deal contingent on zoning approval. BREW has also reported Levine and Cohn involved in numerous Valley real estate investments. The low-profile investors have bought and sold many high-profile, landmark type properties in the Phoenix area as well as other markets throughout the U.S. Find out more from Hazen at (713) 270-3366. Reach Schultz of JDM Partners at (602) 224-2312. Talk to Cohn at (602) 248-8181.  Call Fijan at (602) 538-3338.

EXTRAORDINARY PROSPERITY Fortune President: The Chinese and world economy in the innovation revol...

Co-operate + Compete - what does that mean to reporting about these companies?

Published on Dec 8, 2017

The 2017 Fortune Global Forum wrapped up in Guangzhou Friday. With unprecedented speed, Chinese companies are marching throughout the global market. Now 116 Chinese companies on on the list of "the Fortune Global 500." Industries are being transformed by breakthroughs in various fields. Companies have to find innovative ways to better cooperate and compete with each other. Media organizations, in particular, are under tremendous pressure to adapt to new trends. Tian Wei sat down with Alan Murray, Time Inc. Chief Content Officer and President of Fortune, to discuss the opportunities and risks that China and the world economies face in the innovation revolution as well as the future of media organizations.

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Joni Mitchel with Peter Gabriel - My Secret Place

On a roll with Joni Mitchell tonight - some fête-a-fête with Peter Gabriel carrying on a table conversation :)

2 of My Heroes > Joni Mitchell - Cool Water (With Willie Nelson)

Tribute to Joni Mitchell and the both ----- just take the time to listen > FULL VOLUME

NOT Sex, Lies & Videotape > OUTRAGE Brailsford is the latest cop to walk free without a conviction after a police shooting.

Does it go to show that Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied?
In the case of Ex-Mesa police officer Philip Brailsford - where the video was withheld from the public for almost two years, that should be the question here in Mesa, AZ but for some reason, it's not . . .
Fortunately we do have other national media addressing that question with no question here about the tactics used by MPD.
WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE HERE IN MESA?

Who Is Daniel Shaver?

Graphic Video Shows Arizona Cop Philip Brailsford Killing Texas Dad

By Beatrice Dupuy On 12/8/17 at 10:47 AM

Brailsford's AK-47 inscribed 'You're Fuc#@!

Your MesaZona blogger has featured posts on this example of excessive use-of-force by the Mesa Police Department since the killing was first reported back in January 2016.

If you, dear readers, want to take a look at a very good detailed report, this will get you started in the article by Beatrice Dupuy just published today:

"A former police officer was acquitted Thursday of the "execution"-style killing of an unarmed man who was pleading for his life, setting off more outrage over another cop getting off despite graphic evidence.  
Philip "Mitch" Brailsford was found not guilty Thursday of second-degree murder for shooting Daniel Shaver in a La Quinta Inn & Suites hallway in Mesa, Arizona. But the horror of the incident was only fully learned after the acquittal, when authorities released body camera footage of Brailsford killing the 26-year-old as he berated him and forced him to crawl toward him. . .

Read more > http://www.newsweek.com/police-release-graphic-video-officer-involved-shooting-742241

 

Mesa City Council Study Session > OPEN DATA PORTAL = A Failure So Far

New Administrator named for the not-so-successful Mesa Open Data Portal > Evan Allred.
Presentation of the 'new' platform BUT PLEASE READ THE ORIGINAL HYPE FOR WHAT WHATWORKSMESA was supposed to do two years ago
THE GOAL =?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Discussion of Open Data Portal introduced by Mayor John Giles - the portal has been "in a trial basis" for the last two years - the contract is ending and a new contractor is announced in 6 months April 2018
What Works City Feature: Mesa, AZ 
Data and evidence as the building blocks in the foundation of the new NextMesa   
Source: https://whatworkscities.bloomberg.org/works-city-feature-mesa-az/
Setting the Stage

Mayor John Giles came into office promising to build the “NextMesa.”

As the third largest city in Arizona, Mayor Giles was committed to enhancing the city’s budding reputation as the economic and cultural hub of the East Valley. Over the past several years, and recently under Mayor Giles’ leadership, Mesa experienced a host of transformative developments that have continued to set it apart from the other bedroom communities and boomtowns that dot suburban Phoenix. With these recent changes to its economic and cultural landscape that included the opening of a new light rail system, a cultural arts center in downtown Mesa, the building of a new spring training facility, and an agreement for a new world-class Apple Computers facility within city limits, the stage has been set to solidify Mesa as a regional leader. Understanding the vital role that city government plays in shaping a great community, Mayor Giles and the City Council continue to work with city staff and the community at large to maintain the momentum of this growing and vibrant community, where key issues include balancing high-density, urban, downtown living with an attention to resident quality of life.
The Prospect to Advance Change

The idea behind the Mayor’s NextMesa initiative was for city government to better communicate with its residents by both responding to their needs and proactively reaching out to plan toward a shared future.

QUESTION: Better communicate??? 
Mayor Giles, City Manager Chris Brady, and Mesa’s senior leadership team all recognized that while the city maintained residents’ confidence, there existed an opportunity to

• more succinctly outline the goals of the city
• communicate the steps they planned to take to achieve these goals
• incorporate residents and community partners into the process.

Did they DO IT???
The City had been conducting basic performance management for years through the MesaStat program, however, when city staff embarked on a trip to Los Angeles to observe their CompStat meeting in the spirit of continual self-learning and improvement, they quickly realized the potential to upgrade Mesa’s own practices and refocus MesaStat on citywide priorities.
The Opportunity

With commitment from the Mayor, City Manager, and the executive team, What Works Cities (WWC) identified two ways for Mesa to partner with the experts at the Sunlight Foundation, the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University (GovEx), and Results for America.

The City and the Sunlight Foundation focused on opening up the city’s data to the public while integrating it into Mesa’s ongoing practices.
City staff and leadership spoke to a need for city government to better communicate openly with residents and City Councilmembers about their processes, decision-making, and recent successes.
To address this gap, Mesa’s open data champions collaborated with the Sunlight Foundation to develop a comprehensive open data policy, which City Manager Chris Brady signed October 15, 2015.
This policy, among other things, codified and implemented a process for the collection and liberation of Mesa’s data, helping to make it available to the public in a useful and responsive way.
It also helped set up their data to link to the City’s MesaStat dashboard which, when available, will create internal customers of open data and ensure data that is used for decision- making is open and transparent.
Mesa also created the Open Data Leadership board, which has begun taking steps to prioritize the collection and release of data while ensuring it is displayed in a user-friendly way that allows for maximal public interaction with the data.????
Mesa and the GovEx team worked together to build out a performance management program that would begin to help the city use data more effectively to drive decision-making and track progress toward new citywide goals.
The City Manager and his team highlighted an opportunity to clarify how departments contribute to the city’s priorities and to improve their ability to use data and evidence to identify opportunities that will help eliminate barriers to progress.
To address this challenge, the Mayor, City Manager, and the executive team refined the city’s priorities into three core areas:
increase the prosperity of Mesa residents
transform Mesa’s neighborhoods
increase the vitality and vibrancy of downtown Mesa
and then convened working groups to select measures and collect supporting data to track each of the priorities.?????
To support this effort, Mesa established a new format for its MesaStat program with cross-departmental meetings convened by the City Manager and Mayor on each of the three citywide priorities.
Underlying both the performance management and open data work was an opportunity to begin dismantling departmental silos, reorient the way the city was using data to make decisions, and to better communicate these goals to residents.
Key Accomplishments

• •Enacted Mesa’s first Open Data Management Policy.
• •Developed an open data governance plan, resulting in the establishment of the Open Data Leadership Board and the appointment of its members to oversee the open data initiative.
• •The Open Data Leadership Board held its first series of meetings, making key foundational decisions.
• •Publicly restated the City’s commitment to achieving strategic goals through open data and performance management via The Sunlight Foundation’s OpenGov Voices blog and Mayor Giles’ press release detailing Mesa’s commitment to data-driven outcomes.
• •Conducted a data inventory and established a process for prioritizing the release of data sets, including Mesa’s “Top 10” and those datasets relating to key performance indicators.
• •Procured an open data portal and began dashboard design process.
• •Began process of incorporating external stakeholders in the open data and performance management process by bringing in Mesa public school representatives.
• •Defined citywide prioritizes that received Mayor, Council and City Manager approval, through conversations with internal stakeholders.
• •Identified potential outcome and output indicators organized in a taxonomy supporting each priority.
• •Scheduled and convened a first round of Mesa’s new performance management meetings focused on citywide priorities, including written briefing materials for the leadership team in advance of the meeting.

Through its work with What Works Cities, Mesa has made significant strides toward a new vision of NextMesa that Mayor Giles and City Manager Brady has set for the city.
NOT 
Mesa city staff has successfully built upon their existing processes and systems to fuel a culture of continual self-improvement and innovation based on the use of data and evidence.
Click here for a PDF copy of this City Feature.

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Posted by What Works Cities Staff

With the Help of Fannie Mae Another MFU Grabbed-Up: 676 Units Sell For $101M

 

MGPG Buys AZ Community for $101M

Lakeview at Superstition Springs comprises 44 buildings which overlook five lakes.

The apartment community is undergoing a series of interior renovations.

by Tudor Scolca | Dec 08, 2017

MG Properties Group has acquired a 676-unit apartment community in Mesa, Ariz., Lakeview at Superstition Springs Apartments.

Fairfield Residential sold the property for $101 million, a transaction which was subject to a $70.7 million Fannie Mae loan.

Source: https://www.multihousingnews.com

 

Lakeview at Superstition Springs Apartments sits on 38 acres you and comprises 44 buildings spread among the five lakes on the property.
It was built in three phases and finalized in 1998. Since then, an interior upgrade program was started on the premises, with the current owner planning to continue it.
The apartment community is situated at 1849 S. Power Road, about 25 minutes away from downtown Phoenix.
Lakeview at Superstition Springs Apartments comprises

• 230 one-bedroom
• 332 two-bedroom
• 72 three-bedroom units
• 42 two-bedroom townhouses.
• Unit size ranges from 776 to 1,314 square feet.

Common amenities include four swimming pools, spas, fitness center, two clubhouses and lakeside ramadas with barbecue stations.

Attractive rental market

Residents are nearby multiple shopping and dining options, such as the Superstition Springs Center or Mesa Pavilions North.

A movie theater and a golf club are also near the community.

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is 15 minutes away.

Route 60, adjacent to the property, provides a good transit option into downtown Phoenix, reachable in half an hour by car.

According to Yardi Matrix, the property is 93 percent occupied, with monthly rent at an average of $1,059.

“Phoenix continues to be an attractive rental market with strong employment growth and net in-migration. Lakeview at Superstition Springs is positioned to capitalize on this in a walkable location with access to major employers,” said Mark Gleiberman, CEO of MG Properties Group, in a prepared statement.

Fairfield Residential was represented by a team of CBRE brokers, while Vice Chairman Rocco Mandala arranged the Fannie Mae financing.

Image courtesy of MG Properties Group