Circle K Stores of Tempe, AZ purchased a 57,935-square-foot retail pad at La Jolla Verde Commercial Center in Sahuarita for $1 million ($17.30 PSF). This will be the first pad construction at this new retail center located southeast of I-19 on Old Nogales Hwy near the full diamond interchange.

This core retail intersection for Sahuarita with a Super Walmart-anchored center directly across from it. This Walmart center also has Ross Dress for Less, Big Lots, Wells Fargo, Walgreens, Bank of America, 99 Cent Only, and other national retailers.

Brenna Lacey with the Volk Company in Tucson represented the seller, La Jolla Verde Land Holdings, LLC of Los Gatos, CA.

Kurt Maes with Scarbrough & Associates in Phoenix represented Circle K in the acquisition.

To learn more Lacey should be reached at 520.326.3200 and Maes can be contacted at 602.774.4243,

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In a second unrelated transaction, a 42,047-square-foot retail pad (lot 3 block 45) in Rancho Sahuarita, Sahuarita, AZ sold to Gen2Properties, LLC dba Taco Bell for $895,000 ($21.29 PSF).

Located at the southeast corner of I-19 and Sahuarita Road, Taco Bell with join McDonalds, Shell, United States Post Office, and Pima County Public Library.

A growing bedroom community, Sahuarita is only 15 minutes to Tucson Airport and 45 minutes to Nogales and Mexico.

Rob Tomlinson, Retail Specialist with Cushman & Wakefield | Picor of Tucson represented the seller, RSMC VI, LLC and Aaron LaPrise, Retail Specialist with Cushman & Wakefield | Picor represented the buyer.

To learn more Tomlinson should be contacted at 520.546.2757 and LaPrise can be reached at 520.546.2770.

For additional information see RED Comp #2849 and #2850.

The former Northern Trust Bank in Tucson – Wealth Management Division, at 6444 E Tanque Verde Road sold for $1.155 million ($105 PSF). This 10,963-square-foot Class A building was built in 2002 on a 1.37 acre lot by Northern Trust with a leasehold on the land. When the leasehold terminated the property with building was returned to the seller, PJC Investments LLC of Phoenix (Pat Cusack, managing member).

The Northern Trust Corporation is an American international financial services company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It provides investment management, asset and fund administration, fiduciary and banking services through a network of 85 offices in 18 U.S. states and 20 international offices in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

The property was vacant when it sold and the buyer, Tanque Verde Square LLC of Tucson (Abraham Slilary, managing member) purchased the property, complete with vault remaining, to lease it..

David Montijo and Nancy McClure of CBRE in Tucson represented the seller.

Juan Teran, CCIM, with Chapman Lindsey Commercial Real Estate Services in Tucson represented the investor in the transaction.

“The building, having been built for the Wealth Management Division of Northern Trust, spared no expense in appeal as a corporate signature property,”  Teran said. “Located in the northeast quadrant of Tucson, the property is surrounded by offices and a myriad of restaurants, hospitals, and other amenities.”

To learn more contact Teran should be reached at 520.747.4000. Montijo and McClure can be contacted at 520.323.5100.

Additional information can also be found by logging in and referencing RED Comp #2822.

(Note: A typo in headline has been corrected to read $1.16, the actual sale prices was $1.155 million for this property.)

There has been much written about the new HomeGoods Tucson distribution center lately. What hasn’t been told until now,  is the creative brokerage it took by a group of real estate professionals to assemble the land for the HomeGoods Tucson deal to come together.  It really started almost two years earlier, when the Massachusetts-based TJX Companies, HomeGoods’ parent company, broadcasted its requirements for a 100-acre site appropriate for a new western regional distribution center to be built.

Rob Glaser, CCIM, SIOR, Principal at Cushman & Wakefield | Picor, credited as the mastermind behind this real estate assemblage told us when he first heard of the requirement it was just his intuition that told him Tucson would be an ideal place for the company.

“Others thought I may have lost my mind,” Glaser admitted. “But, I knew we already had the Fed Ex distribution center under construction and the American Tire distribution center right there on Alvernon, so there was no reason HomeGoods wouldn’t like the site too, if we could just assemble 100 acres.”

An assemblage is a daunting task. A task that took about one year from the time the proposal was submitted until closing.

To start, Glaser had a listing for 7.38 acres, the smallest piece of the assemblage; and needed another 93 more acres. Glaser approached Steve Cohen, Principal with Cushman & Wakefield | Picor with the idea. Cohen had a 36.83 acre parcel listed at the far end of the 108 acres that Glaser was thinking about, and told Cohen they should assemble the parcels in between.

Cohen told us he was skeptical when first approached, with so many different owners involved. “But Rob was convinced it was an ideal site and convinced me it was certainly worth a try,” Cohen said.

Glaser then went to Bob Delaney and Tim Healy of CBRE in Tucson who had one of the 19.4 acre parcels listed along Corona Road. Delaney and Healy’s seller also agreed to negotiate. With these brokers on board, a remaining three parcels, or about 45 more acres remained to meet the HomeGoods’ requirement.

Delaney said, “It truly was creative brokerage that made the deal work and Rob Glaser was the mastermind who first had the vision and kept the process moving.”

Chicago owners held another key 19.4 acre piece at the northeast corner of Corona and Palo Verde and were represented by Henry Jacome of H.J. Properties in Tucson.

“Glaser was the glue that kept the deal together; every time it looked like it might fall apart,” Jacome said. “It wasn’t easy getting all the sellers to agree on a price, and if any one of them backed out, the whole deal would have fallen apart.”

With only 25.5 more acres to go, Glaser contacted an Elgin, Ill group of investors, to see if they would be willing participants in the negotiations, if he represented them. They agreed.

Each of the five listing brokers were put in contact with HomeGoods’ broker, Art Wegfahrt of Savills Studly Commerical Real Estate Advisors in Philadelphia to negotiate their pricing terms. Prices ranged from $1.38 to $3 per square foot for the raw industrial zoned land, due to variations that included a wash running through a portion of the property.

After agreements were reached for the real estate, it still wasn’t finished. David Welsh at TREO was coordinating with Wegfahrt to contact the City of Tucson and Pima County for a $1.6 million tax incentive package that would save HomeGoods $6 million over 15 years. The tax incentive was necessary in order to stay competitive with Phoenix, Southern California and Nevada that were also in the bid with sites for this project.

When the news came that HomeGoods liked Tucson best, everyone was elated. The final assemblage of six parcels from five sellers and five brokers closed at an aggregate amount of $9.53 million ($88,253 per acre) for 108-acres.

The 800,000-square-foot HomeGoods distribution facility construction costs are expected to be around $40 million and will bring a minimum of 400 with growth to 900 jobs. The city is projected to receive $1.4 million in direct revenue over 15 years. All thanks belong to the creative brokerage of everyone involved and to Rob Glaser’s intuition.

To learn more, the resourceful group of brokers who brought this project to life should be contacted. Glaser can be reached at 520.546.2707 and Cohen is at 520.5462750. Delaney can be contacted at 520.323.5171, while Healy is at 520.323.5119. Jacome’s contact number is 520.977.8180 and Wegfahrt can be called at 215.563.4000.

For additional information and transaction specifics login to see RED Comp #2828, #2829, #2830, #2831 and #2832.