Sunbelt Holdings, a privately-held Scottsdale developer involved in some of metro Phoenix’s largest master-planned communities, purchased 480-acres at the northwest corner of Kolb and I-10 for La Estancia, a new master-planned community with a complimentary mix of uses planned for development within the Tucson metro area. Sunbelt paid $17.1 million for the 480-acre master-planned community, block platted for residential, commercial, light industrial, public facilities, recreational and open space.

When fully developed La Estancia will consist of 1,500 – 2,000 homes, 51 acres commercial use and 24 acres of light industrial space, plus parks and open spaces; there’s even 10-acres reserved for a ‘possible elementary school’. The community sold with 664 platted lots of varied sizes, ranging from 40’ x 110’ to 65’ x 110’.

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Sean Walters, Chief Operating Officer of Sunbelt told us that Bob Bambauer, Vice-President at Sunbelt Holdings, was integral to the decision to buy La Estancia. Bambauer, prior to joining Sunbelt Holdings in January 2007, lived in Tucson and knows the community, having worked with homebuilders such as Pulte Home Corp, Robson Communities and KB Homes Tucson, Inc. Bambauer will be overseeing development of La Estancia, as well as continue involvement in Sunbelt’s Vistancia master- planned community in Peoria, AZ.

Sunbelt has a long term business strategy for its projects that depends on the right management: “A real estate project cannot flourish without dedicated and close supervision. From the time a project is born, Sunbelt strategically manages it to maximize long-term viability and yield, regardless of size, value or market sector. Whether managing commercial or residential projects, every aspect of the project is actively managed including pre-construction, land development and vertical construction and promotion, tenant and builder relations, financial management, and marketing,” according to the company’s profile.

Sunbelt is a recognized leader in real estate development, management and investment throughout the Southwest since 1979. Over the years, the firm has gained an understanding of the area’s unique characteristics that only time and experience can teach. Early projects like the Phoenix Gateway Center remain successful icons. Recent acquisitions of turn-around assets have provided unique opportunities to add value in the ‘class A’ office market with the Hayden Ferry Lakeside project in Tempe, and the PV|303 industrial project in the West Valley of Phoenix.

It is Sunbelt Holdings along with Ryan Companies US, Inc. developing The Marina Heights project, the largest office development in Arizona history, with more than 2-million-square-feet to be constructed on more than 20 acres, adjacent to Tempe Town Lake, in conjunction with ASU in Tempe.

Sunbelt also developed some of the Phoenix Valley’s most beloved residential communities including award winning communities such as McDowell Mountain Ranch in Scottsdale, Power Ranch in the East Valley and Vistancia in the Northwest Valley.

In all, Sunbelt has developed over 50,000 acres of land over the past 30 years.

Sendero Pass, a 770-acre master- planned community in the Southwest submarket of Tucson Arizona, located at Valencia and Ajo Highway, was Sunbelt’s first entry into Tucson last year. La Estancia is Sunbelt’s second project. Work at La Estancia is expected to start later this year or early next.

Will White with Land Advisors Organization of Tucson handled the transaction for buyer and seller, La Estancia 525, LLC (Richard Price, managing member). Land Advisors Organization will also be handling the marketing and disposition of lots to homebuilders.

Bambauer can be reached at (623) 243-6307. White can be contacted at (520) 514-7454. For more information on Sunbelt Holdings and other projects, please visit https://sunbeltholdings.com . [/mepr-show]

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[ismember] Sale date was 8/16/2013. Escrow time was 4 months. Market time – 18 months. Buyer put $3,260,000 down and financed the balance of $17,080,500 with conventional financing from Alliance Bank and a seller carryback.  Recorded seller was Landmark Title Trust #18,352-T, La Estancia 525, LLC (beneficiary).[/ismember]

Richmond American Homes of Arizona (James Gaulin, Director of Land Acquisition) acquired 36 SFR lots at Gladden Farms Block 17 for $1.3 million ($36,500 per lot) in Marana, a community in Northwest Tucson. The finished lots are 65’ x 112’ in this partially built out community. Richmond has constructed 47-homes in Block 8 at Gladden Farms, known as Arbors at Gladden Farms, and with only six lots remaining in that subdivision, moved over to Block 17 to continue building its popular models. The seller was Bell Hollow, LLC (Steve Russo, managing member) of Tucson.

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[mepr-show rules=”58038″]Meanwhile in the South of Tucson, Richmond American bought 39-lots at Sycamore Point for $1.35 million ($34,500 per lot) in Tucson. Located at the southwest corner of I-10 and Kolb Road, Sycamore Point is a new community for Richmond American Homes that will be joining D.R. Horton there. This transaction is the first phase of a two-part option for 84 finished SFR lots. The lots are 40’ x 110’. The developer and seller is West Kolb, LLC and affiliate of R.B. Price Company (Richard B. Price, managing member) of Tucson.

Dan Feig and Aaron Mendenhall with Chapman Lindsey of Tucson handled both of these transactions.

Richmond American is a wholly owned subsidiary of M.D.C. Holdings, Inc., (NYSE:MDC) a Delaware Corporation based in Colorado since 1972. The homebuilding operations are comprised of many homebuilding subdivisions. Its Financial Services segment consists of HomeAmerican Mortgage Corporation, which originates mortgage loans mainly for its homebuyers, American Home Insurance Agency, Inc., which offers third-party insurance products to its homebuyers, and American Home Title and Escrow Company, which provides title agency services to the Company and its homebuyers in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, Virginia and West Virginia. The Company builds and sells mainly single-family detached homes that are designed and built to meet local customer preferences. The Company is a general contractor for all of its projects and retains subcontractors for land development and home construction.

Richmond American ranked 11 in the top 100 homebuilders for 2012, with 3,740 closing for the year.

Gaulin can be reached at (520) 544-2700. Feig and Mendenhall should be contacted at (520) 747-4000.[/mepr-show]

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[ismember] Sale date on Gladden Farms was 8/6/2013. Sale date on Sycamore Point was 8/13/2013.  [/ismember]

‘The Arizona’ at 31-47 N 6th Avenue in Tucson sold for $1.35 million ($75 PSF). The 17,927 sq. ft. two-story building (built 1917) is on the National Historic Registry for buildings. The buyer was Dabdoub Investments (Marcel Dabdoub) of Nogales, AZ and the seller, Mary Williamson of Sunnyvale, CA who had owned the property since 2005.

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[mepr-show rules=”58038″]The Arizona Hotel is an end-row, two-story building with a basement, retail space on the ground floor and a former hotel, now art gallery, on the second floor. The slightly trapezoid property, the basement occupies the entire footprint of the building with four rooms. The ground floor is divided in to four retail spaces that have been leased to dozens of tenants since 1917, the most notable being the Wells Fargo Company and the most recent Monkey Burger that has moved out since selling.

In addition to the retail spaces, the ground floor has a stairway entrance to the second floor. Currently, the former hotel is composed of a lobby that was at one time an atrium that has been roofed over, 23 rooms and 10 bathrooms; the original hotel contained 36 rooms and six bathrooms. The original hotel also had a screened sleeping porch protruding almost 12 feet on the west facade of the second floor that was removed in 1990.

Although the architect is unknown, Henry O. Jaastad is credited as the architect for having done remodeling work to the facade of the building. It is clearly designed by someone versed in the Neoclassical Revival style, as shown in the division of the overall symmetrical façade into individual symmetrical bays, the triangular pediment, window ensembles with molded surrounds and decorative pilasters. The style and architectural integrity has been maintained throughout the years, with the ground floor used as retail space. Various tenant improvements, including minor modifications to the facade have taken place over the years, but nothing that violated the fundamental integrity of the building’s stylistic characteristics.

The history of the building is obscure. A bargain and sale deed, dated 1914, granted the land it was built on to Luke G. Radulovich who is referred to in the city directories of the time as a “capitalist”. Radulovich is renowned for the Radulovich Block (now demolished), a prominent, two-part commercial block at the northeast corner of Stone and Congress where he had a thriving business, “L.G. Radulovich & Co. Sanitary Plumbing, Crockery and Glassware”. Newspaper accounts indicate that in 1890, W.A. Julian, a competitor in Tucson’s plumbing business, bought out Radulovich for $25,000, and his newly merged business, W.A. Julian Company, dominated 85% of all plumbing, heating and roofing business in Tucson. By 1906, Radulovich and family had moved to Austria “after having made a small fortune here”, but returned in 1908 to invest as a partner in , and later president of, the Tucson Owl Drug Company, which eventually became one of Tucson’s prominent drugstores. By 1917, he is listed as “retired” and beginning in 1918 his city directory entry is associated with the Arizona Hotel. Radulovich does not appear again in any city references until his death in 1921.

The property sold with three retail tenants on the ground floor and an art gallery upstairs. We were unable to speak with the new owner to ask his intentions for the building, but since selling two of the retail spaces have become vacant.

There were no brokers involved in the transaction.[/mepr-show]