TUCSON Arizona — Everyone expected a positive Tucson Office Market report for Q1 2017 as it trends upward, but it may be doing even better than expected.

We spoke with Tom Nieman, Office Specialist at Cushman & Wakefield to ask what was happening.

Nieman told us from 2010-2015 office vacancy had hovered around the 12%-13% mark in Tucson. However, this first quarter 2017 had an office vacancy drop to 10.9%. That’s almost a full percentage point drop year-over-year from when it was 11.7%.

“Businesses are feeling optimistic with the economy doing better, and businesses growing need more space,” Nieman said. “Some are even buying land when they can’t find what they want to build.”

Sales volume, according to RED Comps, which tracks all commercial sales in Pima County, is up by 51.94% in Q1 year-over-year, with the median sale price rising from $275,000 in Q1 2016 to $390,000 in Q1 2017.

“We’re not out of it (the recession) yet, but we sure are seeing improvement,” Nieman remarked.

Another sign of the improving economy is at 5151 E. Broadway, an approximately 250,000-square-foot, 17-story, Class-A office tower in Tucson with 360-degrees of breathtaking views, where Rick Kleiner and Tom Nieman, represent the landlord.

When Bayview Loan Servicing recently leased 39,627-square-feet of office space at 5151, this marked an 85% occupancy for the building, with all the full floors now leased.

Mark Irvin, CCIM, SIOR, of Mark Irvin Commercial Real Estate Services, who specializes in the office market had this to say, “This may be the highest occupancy the building has ever experienced in the 30 years I have been focusing on office properties in Tucson.”

Janine Irvin, CCIM, and Mark Irvin have a sublease on the ground floor. “This leaves the block of space we are representing on the ground floor (Tucson College Space) the largest block – just over 40K SF.   That space, although occupied, is available for sublease.   Good news for both the market and for Tucson’s largest multi-tenant office building,” Irvin expressed.

Kent Circle Partners, an affiliate of Seldin Real Estate, Inc. of Scottsdale owns the 5151 E Broadway tower and with the renewed enthusiasm in the market is doing a major remodel of the lobby and elevators. Adding a Destiny Dispatch System to the elevators, an optimization technique used for multi-elevators, which groups passengers for the same destinations into the same elevators, thereby reducing waiting and travel times when compared to a traditional elevator system where all passengers wishing to ascend or descend enter the same elevator and then request their destination. This is but one of the upgrades the owners are currently undergoing at 5151 to modernize the building.

Kent Circle Partners specializes in acquiring high-quality mixed-use real estate assets.

For additional information, Nieman can be reached at 520.5446.2728, Kleiner is at 520.546.2745 while Janine and Mark Irvin should be contacted at 520.620.1833.

Los Angeles, CA – PSRS (Pacific Southwest Realty Services) a Southern California based commercial mortgage banking firm, recently closed an $11.25 million loan for a 90,626-sqaure-foot grocery anchored shopping center in Phoenix, Arizona. The center is anchored by a regional Hispanic grocer, El Super, which makes up approximately 50% of the center.  Originally built in 1979, and renovated in 2006, the center is in a densely Hispanic market, with a huge consumer base in the area.

There are 58 El Super locations in the Southwestern US, and 3 in the city of Phoenix. Some of the other 17 tenants in the center include, Walgreens, Payless Shoe Source, H&R Block, Subway Sandwiches, Hollywood Beauty, Rent-A-Center, and ACE hardware.

PSRS Principal, Kostas Kavayiotidis,  closed the fifteen-year no-recourse loan with a long time correspondent life insurance company.

The borrower is Red Mountain Retail Group, who’s portfolio encompasses 87 shopping centers with nearly 4-million-square-feet of commercial retail development. PSRS is one of the largest privately-held commercial mortgage banking firms in the Western United States. Their long-term lending relationships as a life insurance company correspondent allow access to diverse capital for commercial real estate and multi-family loans of all sizes, while in-house servicing provides customer service over the life of the loan.

The PSRS Team has funded a number of loans through various economic cycles and has a track record of closing loans on a timely basis

PIMA COUNTY — Finding a place to live after spending time behind bars can be uniquely challenging and present particularly few choices. A gathering this Friday, April 21 at the Pima County Housing Center, 801 W. Congress St., will examine the obstacles to and options for decent housing faced by people with criminal histories.

District 5 Supervisor Richard Elías will serve as Host of the event which is sponsored by Pima County Community Development and Neighborhood Conservation, Pima County Adult Probation, City of Tucson Housing and Community Development, City of Tucson Public Housing Authority, Southwest Fair Housing Council and University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.

“The past should not define the future,” Housing Center Director Marcos Ysmael said. “Yet all too often individuals who have paid their debt to society encounter significant barriers in finding housing, even with public or federally-subsidized spaces.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates, since 2004, an average of over 650,000 individuals have been released annually from federal and state prisons, and over 95 percent of current inmates will be released at some point.

“We want this event to help connect the entire housing network in Pima County; to build links between former inmates and their support systems, probation, social service, and so on and the property owners and real estate representatives.” said Ysmael. “We also want everyone to understand how to avoid violations of the Fair Housing Act.”

Friday’s speakers will include Grace Gámez, American Friends Service Committee, examining conditions in the nation’s prisons; Rachel Beaty, Southwest Fair Housing Council, delineating HUD’s guidance on fair housing and criminal histories and Manny Mejias, Fortaleza Re-Entry Collaborative, detailing the Pima Prevention Partnership’s role assisting in the re-entry experience.

The day also will include a discussion panel lead by Joanna Medrano, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, presenting the points of view of a landlord, probation officer, social worker and a former inmate.

This event, registered to capacity, begins at 9 a.m. with live streaming of the proceedings available at the Southwest Fair Housing Council’s Facebook page for those who were unable to register in advance.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors declared April “Fair Housing Month” to mark 49th Anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s 1968 signing of the Fair Housing Act. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development recognizes each April as “Fair Housing Month.”