Phoenix, AZ — ABI Multifamily, a dedicated multifamily brokerage and advisory services firm, is pleased to announce the $5.53 million ($30,385 Per Unit) sale of the 182-unit, Alta Vista Village Apartments, located in Phoenix, AZ. Built in several phases from 1959 to 1973, the property features a mix of Studio, 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units, with a weighted average unit size of approximately 765 square feet.

“This was a complicated transaction with many different parties involved on the buyers’ side. The private capital seller operated Alta Vista Village Apartments as a market rate apartment complex. Through the support of The Maricopa County Industrial Development Authority, the new buyer has now converted the property to being affordable housing and placed it into the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program [more commonly known as LIHTC],” states Alon Shnitzer, Senior Managing Partner at ABI and lead broker for the transaction. “The process to convert a property to affordable housing does take time and sellers need to be patient with it, but it should be noted that this buyer, Walling Affordable Communities, is a very experienced affordable housing developer/operator and knew exactly what to do every step of the way during the escrow.”

Located in the West Phoenix Submarket, Alta Vista Village is approximately ½ mile from Grand Canyon University’s $500M campus redevelopment plan occurring along the Camelback and Missouri Road Corridors between I-17, Black Canyon Freeway and 35th Avenue. The West Phoenix Submarket, with per capita and median incomes 60% less than the Phoenix MSA at $11,949 and $26,982 respectively, is in desperate need of more affordable housing projects. The 85019 zip code, where Alta Vista Village is located, has only one affordable housing apartment property (50+ units or greater) in that entire area. “The Buyer is acutely aware of the tremendous need for more affordable units in the immediate area. This submarket lacks two, and especially, three-bedroom unit types suitable for families. Alta Vista Village Apartments contains 73% two and three-bedroom unit types, which made Alta Vista Village a perfect candidate for conversion to affordable housing. Walling Affordable Communities’ repositioning and upgrade plans for the asset are certainly in line with all the changes occurring in the area and will immediately serve those in need,” states Shnitzer.

Alta Vista Village Apartments sit on nearly 7-acres of land, with over 20 total building structures and a dedicated leasing center. Additional property features include: two swimming pools, on-site laundry facilities, ample covered and open parking, a playground and large gathering areas. Alta Vista Village Apartments was approximately 20% occupied at close of escrow.

The Buyer in this transaction is an experienced affordable housing developer, Walling Affordable Communities LP, based in Mesa, AZ.

The Seller in this transaction is a private capital individual based in Beverly Hills, CA.

The Phoenix based ABI Multifamily brokerage team of Alon Shnitzer, John Kobierowski, Rue Bax, Doug Lazovick and Eddie Chang represented both buyer and seller in this transaction.

For more information, Shnitzer should be contacted at 602.714.1283

Grand Canyon University (GCU), a private university located in Phoenix, AZ, has expanded its IT infrastructure with the addition of a colocated data center solution.

The university has been experiencing increased enrollment and expects that trend to continue over the coming years. To support this growth, the university needed to expand its data center and wanted to do so in a way that minimized its carbon footprint. Grand Canyon University selected ViaWest’s Arizona data center to partner with for its IT infrastructure, as well as offer students opportunities to intern and learn, so the university now has two primary data centers.

GCU was initially looking to build or purchase a data center of its own but ViaWest was willing to be more than just a vendor by offering curriculum help to GCU’s computer science department along with other assistance to students according to ViaWest.

ViaWest is based in Denver with 28 data centers in seven states. The Arizona data center has 42,500-square-feet of raised floor capacity, independent backup components for redundancy, 5,400 kilowatts of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) capacity, more than 350 watts per square foot and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance.

The university plans to use the Arizona data center for its production environment and as a backup for its other data center. The new data center will support its online classes, student-facing portal, email, chat and constituent relationship management (CRM) software. The transition is to take place over the summer.

In addition to the data center, the university has also partnered with ViaWest to offer more curriculum options for computer science students. As part of that expanded curriculum, students work on advanced degree programs in computer science will have opportunities to complete internships through ViaWest and tour the data center facility.

In the fall 2015, GCU students will be able to tour the data center and learn what a real-world data center is about and what it’s like to work there.

PHOENIX –Grand Canyon University (GCU) has been named the second-best small company in the nation for the second straight year by Forbes magazine.

Grand Canyon Education, the parent company of GCU, trailed only Questcor Pharmaceuticals of California in Forbes’ annual rankings of the best small companies in America.

“With sales in the past 12 months of $558 million and a market cap of $1.84 billion, they’re schooling the competition,” Forbes wrote about GCU.

Forbes’ rankings are based on earnings growth, sales growth, return on equity and stock performance. Publicly traded firms with less than $1 billion in annual revenue are eligible for the list.

“It’s just a testament to a lot of hard work by a lot of people here at Grand Canyon University,” Brian Mueller, GCU’s president and CEO, said of the ranking. “Everything that we’ve been able to accomplish in a short amount of time is a reflection of that.
“People here care about doing what’s best for our students, they care about what’s best for our community and they find satisfaction in knowing they are working for a university that has a larger purpose and is doing a lot of good in the world.”

Ground campus enrollment at the private Christian university in the heart of Phoenix has tripled since 2010, to 8,500 students in 2013-14. GCU also has 47,000 students in its engaging online program, of which well over 40 percent are studying at the graduate level.

In a second announcement made Thursday, Grand Canyon University also released that it will freeze on-campus tuition costs in 2014-15 for the sixth straight year. Tuition for online students also will remain unchanged for the next academic year.

GCU’s annual tuition rates will remain at $16,500 for all current and incoming students – a figure that has remained constant since 2009. Most GCU students pay far less for tuition, thanks to extensive academic, athletic and transfer scholarships. With these scholarships, the average GCU student pays $7,800 per year in tuition – a figure comparable to public state universities and well below other private universities.

From 2009-12, GCU invested $308 million in capital expenditures in the university – well above its after-tax income of $182.5 million during that four-year period. An additional $100 million in capital expenditures is earmarked for 2013-14. The growth has come without increasing tuition for campus students. Tuition has remained at $16,500 per year since 2009, although most students pay far less. Thanks to extensive academic, athletic and transfer scholarships, the average GCU student pays $7,800 per year in tuition.

Grand Canyon University was founded in 1949 and is Arizona’s premier private Christian university. GCU is regionally accredited and emphasizes individual attention for both traditional undergraduate students and the working professional in seven colleges: the Ken Blanchard College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Theology, the College of Fine Arts and Production, and the College of Doctoral Studies. GCU offers traditional programs on its growing campus, as well as online bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. The University’s curriculum fuses academic and clinical rigor with Christian values to prepare its students to be skilled, caring professionals. For more information about GCU, visit https://www.gcu.edu