TUCSON, ARIZONA – Merit Hill Capital, LP of Brooklyn, NY (Cole Jackson, vice-president) purchased two U.S. Storage Centers in Tucson for an aggregate of 940 units for $5.6 million ($5,957 per unit).

Westport Self-Storage of Irvine, California was the seller of both 4115 E Speedway Blvd. for $2.59 million, 462-unit storage facility, and 2825 N First Avenue for $3.01 million for the 478-unit facility.

Merit Hill Capital is a real estate investment firm focused on acquiring and managing a portfolio of self-storage facilities across the United States.  The firm was founded in 2016 by Liz Raun Schlesinger and has been capitalized with a $300 million equity commitment from a private investment firm with approximately $29 billion in capital under management with offices in New York and London.

The company focuses on opportunities with value-add, turnaround, and/or expansion potential components.

Merit Hill currently has a team of six employees with over 25 years of combined experience working together in the self-storage sector and currently has offices in Brooklyn, New York and Dallas, Texas. Our team previously worked together to build the eighth largest self-storage portfolio in the country. The firm is focused primarily on making one-off and small portfolio acquisitions with value-add or turnaround components in markets that have at least 25,000 residents with population growth.  Merit Hill engages third party property managers, including the two largest third party self-storage property managers in the industry, Extra Space Storage and CubeSmart, to operate its properties.

There were no brokers involved in the Tucson transactions. For additional information, Jackson can be reached at 929.283.6785.

To learn more, see RED Comps #5716 and #5717.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap (NYSE: MMI), announces the sale of Valley View Apartments, a 304-unit multifamily asset in the Catalina Foothills area of northern Tucson, Arizona. The $24.75 million sales price equates to $81,414 per unit.

“Valley View represents an excellent opportunity to refresh and modernize a well-located apartment property within a prosperous community,” says Hamid Panahi, first vice president investments with Marcus & Millichap. “The acquisition is part of an investment strategy that allowed the buyer to create scalable growth at a robust pace by acquiring 831 units in 36 months.”

Panahi, Lane Schwartz and IPA senior managing directors Steve Gebing and Cliff David procured the buyer, a private investment entity based in Beverly Hills, California. The seller is Northland Investment Company.

Built in 1979 on more than 11 acres, Valley View Apartments is approximately five miles from central Tucson. The property is close to Rillito River Walk Park and near access to Arizona State Route 77, Interstate 10 and Interstate 19. The Catalina Foothills area is one of the most prestigious and affluent communities in Arizona and home to La Encantada, the largest upscale shopping center in the Tucson metropolitan area.

For more information, Panahi can be contacted at 520.719.6511.

TUCSON, ARIZONA – Office and medical office sales volume surpassed the $22 million mark in metro Tucson in Q1, up 17.79% over one year ago. The average sale price was $588,315 and median price $356,750, all trending in a positive direction.

The highest sale price was $3.25 million for 6950 E Golf Links Road, the 13,989-square-foot El Rio Santa Cruz Neighborhood Health Center South Campus purchased by the tenant to be owner occupied. Rounding up the top three sales, there was Northwest Allied Physicians Medical Office, 7,805-square-feet at 7890 N Cortaro Road in Marana for a $2.875 million investment and 16,830-square-feet at 6420 E Broadway Blvd. in Tucson for a $2.5 million investment.

Market fundamentals have significantly improved from a year ago, and momentum appears to be continuing into Q2 as expected.

Kevin Volk with Volk Company in Tucson reported Monday marked three successful closings of owner/user sales for office properties over the course of the past week:

• 1247 & 1249 E 22nd Street (office/industrial) sold for $437,000. “A great freestanding building in a location near downtown that will only get better,” said Volk.  John Ash of CBRE represented seller, Robert Williams of Texas while Kevin Volk represented the buyer, TRC Properties. Closed 5/8/18.
• 6802 E Broadway Blvd. (office) sold for $755,000 ($160 PSF), a very strong number for the East Side office market.  Bruce Suppes of CBRE represented buyer, Tucson Broadway Property and Volk represented the seller, Prince Lane Properties (Tracy Cole). Closed 5/11/18.
• 2020 E Broadway Blvd. (office) sold for $238,000.  Sales price of $238,000.  This is a great location, but Broadway has been subject to serious condemnation blight, so I’m very happy to get this sold.  Danny Roth of Keller Williams represented buyer, Miguel Fuentevilla, et al and Volk represented the seller, Guihua and Gina Hua Zhang. Closed 5/15/18.

For additional information, Volk should be reached at 520.326.3200.

To learn more, see RED Comp #5664, #5519 and #5630.