Noble Investment Group of Atlanta, GA has purchased two Windmill Suites hotels in Arizona and plans to pump more than $18 million into improvements and rebranding.

Noble scooped up Chandler’s Windmill Suites Hotel in Chandler at Chandler Fashion Center and the Windmill Suites Hotel at 4250 N Campbell Avenue at St Phillips Plaza, in Tucson.

The purchase price for the Tucson property was recorded at $6 million for the 122-suite hotel ($49,000 per room). The property will undergo a more than $9 million in physical enhancements with new guest suites, the incorporation of the Homewood Suite “Take Flight” lobby concept, new common areas and a completely updated exterior.

The soon to be 129-suite Hyatt Place sale price of the Chandler property was not available, but will undergo more than $8 million in improvements. The comprehensive property redevelopment includes the incorporation of the Hyatt Place lobby concept, all new guestrooms, common areas and exterior enhancements.

The two properties will undergo more than $18 million in renovations and improvements, Noble said in a statement.

The Chandler hotel will be rebranded as the Hyatt Place Phoenix/Chandler, while the Tucson property will be rechristened the Homewood Suites Tucson St. Philips Plaza.

“These two acquisitions are representative of Noble’s strategy to invest in prominently located urban select-service and extended-stay hotels affiliated with premium brands,” said Noble principal Ben Brunt. “Our ability to physically enhance, reposition, and rebrand these assets will enable us to maximize operating performance and add substantial value to these investments.”

For 20 years, Noble has specialized in lodging and hospitality investments. It has spent more than $2.5 billion into upper upscale and upscale hotels throughout the U.S. affiliated with a number of brands such as Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton and Starwood.

For more information, The Windmill Suites in Tucson can be contacted at (520) 577-0007, and the Chandler Windmill Inn Suites is at (480) 812-9600. Noble Investment Group’s number is (404) 419-1000.

Login for additional information.

[mepr-show rules=”58038″]Sale date: 11/1/2013 for Tucson Property. All cash. Was unable to find affidavit for Chandler property and price was not disclosed by buyer. Property in Tucson has 5 APNs: 108-18-709, 710, 711, 012A and 009F. Lot size is 233,348 SF or 5.36 acres.[/mepr-show]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting a slowdown in newly built homes since last summer, as home builders are starting to balk at prices. Since the housing market began recovering in 2011, investors have been bidding up prices for finished lots. But with new-home sales and prices cooling, some builders have been renegotiating their land options to get lower prices or even walking away from the deals.

The home market took a downward turn last summer, as buyers were spooked by double-digit percentage increases in new-home prices and a 1 percentage-point increase in interest rates between May and September.

As a result, land prices have lost some of their upward momentum, and according to the Wall Street Journal are actually declining in some markets.

Meanwhile, Scottsdale-based, Meritage Homes, canceled two land purchases in the Phoenix area in August and September after spending more than $10,000 each for plat studies. Conclusion: The parcels’ prices were too high absent larger gains in home prices. “We just didn’t see the home-price appreciation in those markets,” Michael IlesCremieux, regional vice president of land was quoted in the Journal.

Locally, Will White with Land Advisors Organization of Tucson told us, “After 18-months of ‘fast and furious’ lot sales, it’s natural to have deceleration.” White predicts that the finished lot supply in 2014 will become even more critical as demand continues to outpace supply. “Tucson has seen some cancellations as well, however with new homebuilders entering the market in 2014 those positions are being picked up quickly,” said White.

The full story, Land Prices Hit the Brakes can be found here before being archived.

Since first announcing its project, PhoenixMart, in the fourth quarter of 2011, developers AZ Sourcing and Central Arizona Regional Center will break ground and begin construction on Thursday, November 7, right on schedule. Groundbreaking is set to begin at 9:30 a.m.on the new PhoenixMart development, located at Florence Boulevard near Overfield Road, about two miles east of The Promenade in Casa Grande.

PhoenixMart will be a 1.7-million-square-foot wholesale sourcing facility, being built on 585 acres, to be the first global commerce center of its kind in the United States, according to developers. It is expected to create more than 9,000 local jobs and boost U.S. manufacturing by connecting global buyers with sellers, according to project developers.

While the project is heavily financed by Chinese investors, PhoenixMart has nothing to do with bringing in Chinese business and industry. Rather, its focus is to provide a way to bring American industry into the global market like the Chinese have done over the last 20 years.

PhoenixMart is based off of a development that occurred quite by accident in a small rural town called Yiwu in China back in the 1980s. As China began to experience its own industrial revolution in the 1980s, small businesses began to pop up everywhere. But there wasn’t a central location through which these business owners could market their products. So what developed was referred to as a “farmer’s market on steroids,” as these little manufacturers and business owners flocked to a central location, which started with only a couple of hundred square feet and a tin roof overhead. It was a one-stop shop convenience buying opportunity. Nearly 30 years later, that same little farmer’s market has become a 43 million square foot facility and has virtually turned into a city. It is the biggest place of its kind in the world for wholesale sales of small and midsize manufacturers throughout China. If you were a small manufacturer, then suddenly Walmart, Costco and other large retailers could find you.

Former U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao will be among the federal, state and municipal officials on-hand Thursday for the groundbreaking of PhoenixMart, according to a press release from the project developers. U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, Casa Grande mayor Bob Jackson and PhoenixMart president Jeremy Schoenfelder also are expected to speak at the event.

“Even though it was shovel-ready long ago, its investors were stuck waiting for EB-5 visas. I’m glad we could work together and help clear the way for this important economic effort to launch, ” said Kirkpatrick.  PhoenixMart will showcase goods sold wholesale by about 2,000 manufacturers and distributors in various categories. “The complex will also include a commerce hub that, when completed, will be the largest single-level construction in the country, spanning three football fields wide and nine football fields long,” the press release from PhoenixMart developers said. The facility is to have 1,750 showroom suites and is expected by developers to be fully occupied by the time it opens its doors, projected for late next year.

For more information or to keep an eye on the progress of the project, visit their website at https://phoenixmart.com/, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Linkedin. Vendors can also lease space on the PhoenixMart’s e-commerce site coming soon, www.ephoenixmart.com