Lee Lee’s Plaza at 1980-2080 West Orange Grove on the northeast corner of Orange Grove and La Cholla Blvd traded to California-based, Black Lion Investment Group (Robert Rivani, president) for $6.45 million ($87 PSF).

Located directly across from the Northwest Medical Center, it is  between the Foothills Mall to the north, Oracle to the east and the Sprouts anchored Marana Marketplace to the west.

Lee Lee International Supermarket anchors the center, one is the largest ethnic grocery stores in Arizona, and offers the widest variety of foods from Asia and around the world. Operating 3 locations in Chandler, Peoria and Tucson. It’s not your typical grocery store. Lee Lee carries products from more than 30 countries. It’s a place where both families craving food from home and chefs of global cuisine seeking authentic ingredients can find what they are seeking.

Other tenants include such name brands as Subway, Farmer’ s Insurance, Domino’ s, Goodwill, Curves and Checkmate.

The investor, Black Lion Investment Group, is a privately held commercial retail real estate investment and management firm based in Los Angeles, that oversees approximately 1 million-square-feet of retail space through the United States. This is the company’s first venture in Arizona.

Built in 2001, the approximate 74,445-square-feet of buildings sits on approximately 8.53 acres that wraps the Valero convenience store/gas station at the hard corner. It also has 2 marquee signs, and is well parked with multiple points of access.

The property was lender operated when it sold in this short sale. Bruce Romano, John Yarborough and David Carroll with Romano Real Estate of Tucson managed and handled the transaction for the lender, Transwest Partners, LLC (Michael Hanson, manager) of Tucson.

While in escrow, 1,750-square-feet was leased bringing the property to 94% occupancy at closing.

Yarborough and Carroll have been retained by the new owners to manage and lease the property.

For additional information, Romano, Yarborough and Carroll should be reached at 520.577.1000.

To learn more, see RED Comp #3948.

4^th Avenue is funky, in a good way. Retail space at 500 N 4^th Avenue in Tucson sold recently for $1.3 million ($197 PSF) to a local investor. The 6,592-square-feet in three buildings was built circa 1945 and was 100% occupied by food service tenants at time of sale.

Historic 4^th Avenue district near the University of Arizona is one of the most diverse and dynamic marketplaces in Tucson. Attributes of the property included a 700-bed student dorm to the west and direct access along the downtown modern streetcar. The last retail sale in the Fourth Avenue District was in July 2013. That sale price was for $164 PSF.

Tenants were Bumsted’s, the Chocolate Iguana, Athens on 4^th Avenue and the World Wide Wrap, all Tucson originals and all having been at this same location for decades.

At Bumsted’s you can relax while enjoying a refreshing cocktail and a round of bowling or pinball at the micro-arcade. Catch the latest sporting events on six televisions, including a 47 inch in the sunken dining lounge. Surf the internet with free WiFi while embarking on an equally investigative experience into a Bumsted’s colossal sandwich. Depending on the evening you could enjoy industry night, bingo, karaoke or Bumsted’s Dating Game.

The Chocolate Iguana is the place known for coffee, smoothies, muffins, cookies, bagels and a variety of unique candy found only at Chocolate Iguana on 4th Avenue. This little place is easy to spot since it’s located on the corner of 6th avenue and 4th. It looks like a little cottage with a patio and a neon sign glowing through the window with a green iguana. Inside the cottage, the first thing you see is a little gift shop with really cool stuff such as old tin lunch boxes, unusual magnets and cards. They also sell sandwiches, salads and desserts and you can grab something good and sit outside on their shady patio and enjoy the 4th Avenue scene. Their candy is quite fun because there you will find stuff from back in the day that you swore you would never see again. I’m talking about candy cigarettes, sweet tarts shaped like Legos, a wide variety of gummy bears and different kinds of chocolates. I could go on and on about all the candies they have, but it’s best if you see it for yourself.

Athens on 4th Avenue has been voted Tucson’s Best Greek restaurant for over 17 years and is an authentic family-owned Greek restaurant including artisan Greek dishes, fresh fish and seafood, prime meats, vegetarian specialties, homemade soups, and handmade desserts. All the dishes are prepared with the finest ingredients including locally grown vegetables and imported extra virgin olive oil, cheeses, olives, and wines. Family owned & operated, Athens on 4^th Avenue has been serving the freshest Greek cuisine for over 18 years from this same spot on Tucson’s historic 4^th Avenue district.

World Wide Wraps is an innovative quick service restaurant that provides healthy alternatives to traditional fast food. World Wide Wraps goes beyond burritos by wrapping gourmet, multi-cultural ingredients into wonderfully flavored low fat tortillas.

The seller of the property, Bernell Partners, is three partners from New York, who owned it for a very long time and are liquidating assets for retirement. Bruce Romano of Romano Real Estate in Tucson handled the property from the beginning for the sellers and represented the partners in the sale. The buyer was represented by Tom Nieman with Cushman & Wakefield| Pico in Tucson.

For additional information, login or see RED Comp #2504 or RED Comp #1513.

[mepr-show rules=”58038″]Sale date: 2/2/2015. All cash deal. Buyer is a local attorney who wanted to remain anonymous. Property was purchased by the Lindsey Coleman Biaggi Trust, Scott Biaggi, Trustee.[/mepr-show]

Romano Real Estate Corporation recently brokered the short sale of the Kolb Plaza Office Complex. The 27,820 sq. ft. office complex located in three building at 2090, 2096 and 2100 N Kolb Road in Tucson was purchased by an investor (Kolb Office Park LLC ) who saw an opportunity to create value by rehabbing an office complex that offers attractive architecture, a convenient location, ample parking, easy access, and proximity to many amenities.

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Bruce Romano of Romano Real Estate Corporation has managed Kolb Plaza for approximately 10-12 years. He first started managing the property for Oak Properties of San Diego that purchased it back in the RTC days and continued to manage it for Kolb Plaza, LLC after it purchased the property in 2007 for $4.2 million.

Like many commercial properties that were purchased near the peak of the market, Kolb Plaza fell into hard times as lease rates began dropping in 2008 and vacancy rates started to rise. Unfortunately for the seller, the rental income could no longer support the debt service and the property continued to lose tenants that were not replaced.

As the property manager, Romano had many discussions with the lender about the property, the Tucson office market, and the need to invest a lot more money into Kolb Plaza for both capital improvements and tenant improvements in order to stabilize the property.

In the beginning of 2012 the seller and lender both felt some changes were needed to be made at the property and asked Romano Real Estate Corporation to take over the marketing of the property for lease and/or sale in addition to the property management. A change was made in early 2012 and John Yarborough of Romano Real Estate Corporation was hired.

As Romano and Yarborough began analyzing the property and establishing their marketing plan, they soon realized that even if the property was fully leased again, it would still fall considerably short of being able to support the debt service, and it would take several hundred thousand dollars of additional debt to cover remodeling and leasing commissions to achieve 100% occupancy. Since the additional debt would not have significantly increased the value, Romano recommended a short sale to the lender and suggested scaling down its leasing efforts since the abundance of vacant space actually created opportunities for potential owner/users to occupy entire buildings.

After some internal analysis, the lender agreed to the short sale recommendation and authorized Romano Real Estate Corporation to begin marketing the property for $2.5 million. The offering generated interest from several investors as well as a couple of owner/users and eventually sold for $1.9 million cash.

Romano Real Estate Corporation will continue to handle both the management and the leasing for the new owner, who has plans and cash available to make some capital improvements to the property in order to attract new tenants and turn Kolb Plaza back into a desirable office location. With uncertainty for the property lifted, Dr. Gann’s Diet of Hope, a medical weight loss center, has already leased space and Romano is actively working with several additional prospects.

Romano Real Estate Corporation manages approximately 50 office and retail properties in the area. Its growth has been achieved from word of mouth. The key to its success, Romano explains, “is the uniqueness of Romano’s business model, that is, we are a ‘client-based’ instead of a ‘property-based’ company. We don’t compete with our clients with our own properties. We stay focused on asset management for our clients and have maintained their trust over the years for this reason.” Romano Real Estate employs ten agents in leasing and management combined.

Romano can be reached at (520) 577-1000.

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