TUCSON, ARIZONA – Alain Hartmann of Hartmann Commercial Real Estate handled the sale of the iconic Sun building at 2030 E Speedway Blvd. in Tucson for $1.92 million ($163 PSF) before year end. The Heim family having owned the property for the past 40 years, sold the building in a 1031 exchange for the northern California family partnership with three decades of commercial property holdings including the well-known Seal Rock Inn.

Built in 1960, the office building was designed by famed architect Anne Rysdale, the only registered woman architect in Arizona during the 1950s, Rysdale’s work embraced popular stylistic trends of the era and include: the Tucson Inn on Drachman, the Old Spanish Trail Motel on Benson Highway, the Shelter Cocktail Lounge on Grant Road and the now demolished downtown Myerson’s Department Store on Congress Street.

The Sun Building features some unique rock and stone facades, ornate metal railings with a lush inner atrium filled with mature trees and shrubs, and a waterfall fed Koi pond in the courtyard. The Sun Building has long been known as an example of one of Tucson’s premier mid-century modern office buildings.

The 13,386-square-foot building has a net leasable area of 11,804-square-feet located at the prime University of Arizona central crossroads of Speedway and Campbell Ave in the highly coveted Sam Hughes neighborhood.

“The Sun Building has enjoyed long-term quality tenancy for the past forty plus years and is currently 100% occupied,” said Hartmann. “Its proximity to the University of Arizona has in part been the reason why financial advisors and wealth managers like Bill Wescott and Przewlocki Horvath have been tenants in the building for more than 25 years. Its proximity to downtown has also been a factor, providing a home to Cypress Engineering.”

Fundamental building components and systems have been fully updated and most of the office spaces have been renovated with fresh finishes and custom designed floorplans.

Property management and leasing will continue to be handled by Hartmann Commercial Real Estate. For more information, Hartmann can be reached at 520.332.6000.

To learn more, see RED Comp #8351.

TUCSON, ARIZONA — CBRE has announced Midstar Plaza in Tucson, Ariz. sold to LBM Investments, a private San Diego-based investor for $5.15 million ($102 PSF).

CBRE’s Philip D. Voorhees, Jimmy Slusher and Sean Heitzler in Newport Beach, Calif. along with Nancy McClure in Tucson represented the local private sellers. The La Jolla, Calif.-based exchange buyer was represented by Maha Odeh-Arnold of Zeal Property Group in San Diego.

The property, located at 4500-4594 E. Broadway Boulevard, is a mixed-use center consisting of 50,005-square-feet of retail and 2nd floor office space. The seller had purchased the project in the early 2000’s and redeveloped it with new interiors, exterior façade and a new high-profile pad on the corner.

The transaction included the assumption of an existing loan from Ohio National Life Insurance Company for approximately $2.23 million, producing a 43.6% loan-to-value at a 4.75% interest rate, fully amortizing and due in January 2035. The assumption was facilitated by CBRE Loan Services, Inc. out of Houston, the correspondent servicing the Life Company loan since inception.

“The assumption process was smoother than typical, particularly during COVID, completed in less than 45-days from application,” said Slusher. “This was thanks in part to an experienced purchaser, organized seller and CBRE’s loan servicing team working in conjunction with all parties.”

Midstar Plaza’s 20 retail tenants include a collection of local restaurants, including Opa’s Best, Polish Kitchen, CI Chu’s Mongolian Barbeque, a coffee shop, children’s boutique, hair and nail salons, an Irish dance studio, among others. The 17 co-work style office tenants include Lendmark Financial Services, Shumaker Wengren LCC and U.S. Government military recruiting offices.

“Over time, the ownership successfully curated a tenant mix of national, regional and local businesses, enabling the center to enjoy stabilized occupancy even during COVID,” said McClure, the leasing agent for the property. “Midstar’s location on Tucson’s prime retail and corporate office corridor, Broadway Boulevard, exposes the center to high traffic counts and a continual customer flow looking for unique restaurant offerings, merchandise and services.”  McClure added, “The property has also proudly served as a midtown location for the U.S. military recruiting offices for over a decade.”

To learn more, see RED Comp #8378.

TUCSON, Arizona – Meridian, a full-service real estate developer and owner of medical real estate, is pleased to announce that the firm has closed escrow on the purchase of El Dorado Medical Plaza, a 187,690-square-foot, three-story combined Class-B medical office building, surgery center and hospital in Tucson, Arizona. The property was purchased in partnership with a large institutional investor. Meridian plans to invest additional capital in building improvements and renovations.

The property is located at 1400 North Wilmot Road on an 11.55-acre parcel that is near Tucson Medical Center’s main hospital campus and St. Joseph’s Hospital, as well as other healthcare facilities. “This facility is unique in that it includes both a medical office building and a surgery center, plus it has inpatient hospital floors,” said Meridian Vice President of Real Estate Development, Sheila Schmidt-Turkington. “The property is currently 82% leased to three tenants, Tucson Medical Center (TMC), Southern Arizona’s regional non-profit hospital, a 36-bed inpatient behavioral health hospital, and a prominent surgery center.”

“El Dorado Medical Plaza was attractive to us for a variety of reasons,” continues Schmidt-Turkington. “In addition to being in a location that we were eager to gain a footprint in, existing relationships with Tucson Medical Center and the behavioral health provider made the property very appealing. Also, the building was at a ’fork in the road,’ as major systems had to be refurbished or replaced, and the anchor tenant was deciding whether to stay or go. It was a classic value-add opportunity.”

According to Schmidt-Turkington, “This project gives Meridian the opportunity to do what Meridian does best, solve real estate challenges for our healthcare clients. Tucson Medical Center was well established in the building and did not want to move but was not willing to stay under the existing conditions. Meridian will have touched every major building system when this renovation is complete – giving our tenants a highly functioning building, so they can focus on what they do best – providing excellent patient care to the Tucson community.”

Schmidt-Turkington adds, “Currently, there is a large, mostly unused surface parking lot and structure on the east side of the building. There are multiple points of entry into the building, but only one ‘main entry’ to the hospital building on the north side. We plan to activate one of the eastern entryways by remodeling it and allowing the tenant to add additional signage near the renovated entry. Meridian plans to do significant renovations inclusive of separating the tenancy in the building by way of dedicated entryways and updating internal corridors to ‘guide’ the patients more easily to the desired floor. The behavioral health provider will have clearly marked ingress and egress to the building leading to the third-floor suites and to no other areas in the building. Tucson Medical Center will access through clearly marked entryways and those patients will not have access to the other tenant’s suites. This will allow for greater patient privacy and prevents parking congestion on what is now a single ‘main entry’ side of the hospital building.”

Building renovations are expected to begin immediately and are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2021.

“The El Dorado health campus is an aged campus and is at a point and time when it requires significant capital investment to improve and modernize its infrastructure and aesthetics,” said Richard Prevallet, Vice President of Facilities and Construction, TMC HealthCare. “Meridian is a company with the experience and expertise that can make those much-needed improvements. The planned renovations to this campus will make a significant difference for our staff and patients and we are thrilled to work side by side with Meridian.”

“This will be the second building Meridian has acquired and renovated in Arizona, the historic Grunow Memorial Medical Center in Phoenix was the first,” said Meridian CEO, John Pollock. “Meridian looks forward to continuing to serve Arizona healthcare providers. Our team is honored and privileged to play a role in increasing access and lowering the cost of care.”

Marcus & Millichap’s Ben Tashakorian, Senior Managing Director of Investments, David Benjamin, Senior Associate, Trent Carvolth, Associate and Bradley Peters, Senior Financial Analyst, all based in the firm’s San Diego, California office, and Kelly O’Dea, based in the firm’s Phoenix office, represented the seller, Clarion Properties based in Houston, Texas, in the transaction. Meridian was self-represented.

According to Turkington-Schmidt, Meridian has approximately 750,000 square feet currently in development/redevelopment and will continue to pursue well-located healthcare opportunities across the western United States.