The following leases were reported to the Real Estate Daily News for Phoenix Lease Report during the week of July 1 thru 10, 2015.

INDUSTRIAL – 4901 – 4929 W. VAN BUREN ST., PHOENIX

The ViaWest Group has completed two new leases totaling 80,635-square-feet at its Tiger Industrial Center in Phoenix. Located at 4901 & 4929 West Van Buren, the two-building complex is comprised of 103,064 SF and located just one mile south of a full-diamond interchange on the I-10 Freeway. Walmart will occupy 74,642 SF for temporary storage purposes while Custom Bilt Holdings has signed a long-term lease for 5,993 SF. The property was only 16% leased when ViaWest purchased the asset in January 2015. With the execution of these two leases, Tiger’s occupancy will increase to 94%.

These leases mark significant progress for ViaWest’s Select Strategies Fund focused on the acquisition of general industrial properties in Southwestern U.S. “We purchased Tiger earlier this year with a vision of adding value through strategic property enhancements coupled with our proactive leasing and management approach,” says Gary Linhart, Founding Principal at ViaWest Group. “We’re excited about these deals and want to keep the momentum going at this project by landing a long-term tenant to backfill Walmart in the coming months.” ViaWest’s Fund includes several Arizona properties, a recently acquired industrial center in El Paso, and is currently searching both locally and in neighboring states for new acquisitions.

Custom Bilt Holdings is a Dallas-based metal roofing and gutter manufacturer with an emphasis on eco-friendly technology. “We are excited to land such top-tier companies at the project and look forward to growing our relationships with both Custom Bilt and Walmart,” said Danny Swancey with ViaWest.

Riley Gilbert of Jones Lange LaSalle cites “responsive management, functional lease-ready space, and great access to freeways” as some of the factors that attracted Walmart and Custom Bilt. JLL will continue to market the project’s remaining vacancy.

OFFICE – 275 E. GERMAN RD., GILBERT

Cushman & Wakefield of Arizona, Inc. negotiated a 19,015-square-foot lease for HPOne at Reserve at San Tan, Phase I, located at 275 E. Germann Road, Gilbert AZ  HPOne, headquartered in Trumbull, Conn., will now have two offices in the Valley. It currently operates a Phoenix office off the Black Canyon Highway.  Founded in 2006, HPOne is a health insurance sales and marketing firm with brokerage operations licensed in all 50 states. It focuses on sales of Medicare and individual and family health insurance plans.

“The tenant chose this second site in the Valley based on quality and quantity of an employee pool in close proximity to the property,” said Michael White, Senior Director in the Office Properties group at Cushman & Wakefield. “There are numerous amenities in the area including more than 1.5 million square feet of retail and easy access to the Loop 202.”

“We’ve been extremely happy with our ability to attract and retain qualified employees for our Phoenix office,” said Bill Stapleton, Founder and CEO of HPOne. “When it came time to choose a location for additional expansion, the options for us in the Valley made the decision easy.”

Strong demand for Gateway building anticipated

PHOENIX, AZ – The Phoenix office of JLL has closed the $7 million ($95 PSF) sale of The Hangars at 5615, a major, state-of-the-art office and hangar facility with direct runway access to Phoenix Mesa-Gateway Airport, the hub of Phoenix’s up-and-coming aerospace corridor.

Although the property is currently 100 percent vacant, it is being acquired by an investor with an expected commitment for approximately half of the space.

“At 73,826-square-feet, this is one of the largest hangar facilities on the West Coast,” said JLL Managing Director Bill Honsaker. “The Hangars’ new owners have had strong tenant interest from the very beginning of this process, and we expect that interest to continue as they lease out the building. The unique amenities of this project, the growth of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and the growth of Arizona’s aerospace sector as a whole have put them in a great position.”

Honsaker, along with JLL colleagues Steve Larsen, Riley Gilbert, Tom Turley and Jordan Kissel, represented the property seller in the transaction. CRESA represented the property buyer, Southwest Jet Center.

The Hangars at 5615 is located at 5615 S. Sossaman Rd., at the north entrance of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona. Built in 2007 and 2008 as a full-service Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility for former jet aircraft producer Hawker Beechcraft, the 73,826-square-foot project includes approximately 22,900 square feet of high-end office space flanked by two, fully air-conditioned hangars totalling 25,800 and 25,140 square feet.

Other features of the building include a contemporary main lobby, executive offices, conference rooms, a kitchen and locker rooms. The hangar space features 28’ door heights, 159’ door openings, a Compressed Air Foam (CAF) fire suppression system and HVLS fans throughout. The 5.6-acre site includes adjacent land for expansion.

“The Gateway Airport submarket is growing, and Phoenix aerospace companies are growing as well,” said Gilbert. “This site accommodates both of those very positive trends.”

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is a developing international aerospace center now hosting more than 40 companies such as Embraer, Cessna and Able Engineering, and contributing $1.3 billion annually to the Arizona economy. It offers three runways averaging 10,000 square feet and is situated within Foreign Trade and Military Reuse zones providing savings in property taxes and transaction privilege taxes, and offering job tax credits and job training funds.

Citing continued strong investor interest and robust leasing activity among smaller users, the Phoenix office of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) has sold the Bullard Goodyear Commerce Center, a six-building, 182,496-square-foot flex industrial property in Goodyear, AZ sold for $12.6 million ($69 PSF).

Jones Lang LaSalle Associate Riley Gilbert, along with Jones Lang LaSalle Managing Directors Anthony J. Lydon and Marc Hertzberg, managed the property’s sale on behalf of the seller, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.

Prior to the property sale, JLL led an aggressive 30-month leasing campaign that inked more than 100,000-square-feet in new leases. The commitments brought the industrial development from less than 30 percent occupied to more than 85 percent occupied, with 35 tenants and well positioned for sale.

“These were predominantly small bay deals—the mom-and-pop and regional users that survived the downturn and are now back in the market, creating demand and filling vacant space,” said Gilbert. “This activity turned an already well located project into an equally well occupied one, with limited direct competition and tremendous upside potential based on a proven trend of consistency.”

According to Gilbert, much of this activity is the result of a rebounding homebuilder market and the exponential growth of the West Valley, including neighboring Buckeye, which was the ninth fastest growing community in the nation in 2012.

Located at 500-600 N. Bullard Ave. in Goodyear, the Bullard Goodyear Commerce Center encompasses six office/warehouse buildings totaling 182,496-square-feet on 14.35 acres. Amenities include 20 ft. clear heights, community truck wells, PAD zoning within the City of Goodyear and access to a full diamond interchange at I-10 and Bullard Avenue. The space offers divisibility from a minimum of 2,493 square feet.

“This project provides smaller-scale lease opportunities in a market dominated by large-scale users,” said Gilbert. “That makes for a unique and valuable asset that is located in the middle of a tremendous amount of planned growth.”

Gilbert, Lydon and Herzberg should be contacted at (602) 282-6300.