Buyer attracted to area demographics, stable long-term occupancy

PHOENIX, Arizona – The Phoenix office of JLL has completed the $11.2 million sale of Ocotillo Plaza, a redeveloped retail building situated in the heart of Chandler’s Ocotillo area, a thriving residential, retail and employment hub adjacent to the popular Price Road commercial corridor.

JLL Senior Vice Presidents Peter Bauman and Tivon Moffitt, Senior Managing Director Dennis Desmond and Senior Vice President Tyson Switzenberg represented the building seller, Thompson Thrift Retail Group. Nina Patel represented the buyer, Southern California-based Slater Avenue II LP.

Ocotillo Plaza totals 121,829-square-feet at 2880 S. Alma School Road, on the northwest corner of Queen Creek and Alma School roads in Chandler, Arizona. The building and 10-acre site was purchased in 2017 by Thompson Thrift and then renovated from a former Target store into a multi-tenant retail building that is now fully leased to Goodwill and the flagship location of Shoppers Supply, a ranch, home and outdoor supply retailer.

The repositioned building sits within the larger Ocotillo Plaza shopping center, which is also in the process of a redevelopment that includes the addition of an Aldi supermarket. It is part of a desirable retail corridor boasting anchor tenants such as Albertsons, HomeGoods, Office Max, Sprouts and Stein Mart.

“Investors continue to be attracted to high quality, stabilized greater Phoenix commercial real estate, and that created significant investor demand for this listing,” said Bauman. “The area’s demographics, combined with this building’s newly renovated space and its stable long-term tenancy, were a strong draw for the buyer. We were very pleased to work with them on a property that we believe will provide a high-quality, income-producing asset for their portfolio.”

“It has been a pleasure to work with the entire JLL team on this transaction,” said Chris Hake, Thompson Thrift Vice President, Director of the Southwest Region. “We feel this redevelopment exemplifies the need for creativity in today’s retail real estate environment. As the Prie Road corridor continues to grow its office presence and its number of daily employees, this intersection of Alma School and Queen Creek Road will continue to show strong results from the retailers that are located there. Again, thank you to Tyson Switzenberg, Peter Bauman and Tivon Moffitt for their outstanding work on this project.”

Ocotillo Plaza is the second project sold by the JLL team in the Ocotillo/Price Road corridor area in the past few months. Their other recent transaction was the sale of a single-tenant, Class A office building located on the Price Road corridor. That office building, which is fully occupied by Walgreens, sold during the first quarter for $16.7 million.

MARANA, ARIZONA – Cortaro Commercial JV, LLC sold 3.86-acres at 5600 West Cortaro Farms Road in Cortaro Ranch, off I-10, for $966,650 (5.75 PSF) in Marana. The buyer is Marana Micro-Hospital, LLC, an affiliate of Beaumont Surgical Hospital Partners of The Woodlands, TX plan to construct a 40,000-square-foot micro-hospital on the site.

Cortaro Ranch is approximately 20-acres, at the northeast of Cortaro Farms and I-10, currently with an IHOP (soon to be rebranded IHOB) at 8445 N Cerius Stravenue, as shown on the site plan. The micro-hospital will be located to the north of IHOP and a build-to-suit Dutch Bros Coffee with drive-thru under construction by the seller / developer, Thrift Thompson Retail Group (TTRG).

Cortaro Commercial JV is a joint venture between Caddis Bridge (Greg Anderson) of Tucson and TTRG, a Terra Haute, Indiana based company with an office in Phoenix (Chris Hake, Vice-President and Director of Southwest Region).

Chris Hake is leading the development and heads up the local operations in Phoenix. Hake has been with Thompson Thrift since 2007 and has been in the commercial real estate industry for over 10-years. Hake told us the company is also in negotiations with a national retailer for a 45,000-square-foot store at the northwest corner of the center, shown on the site plan.

Plans are to develop an additional medical / office building adjoining the 35,000-square-foot, 22-bed micro-hospital, including inpatient and emergency room beds, a planned hotel site and additional retail shop space at Cortaro Ranch. Serial Grillers recently announced a future restaurant here while still doing tenant improvements at the former Chuy’s in Rita Ranch at 7585 S. Houghton Road in Tucson.

This is the second micro-hospital in metro Tucson, the first was built as an Emergency Center at Houghton Town Center by Northwest Medical Center.

Starting in Colorado, Texas, Indiana, and other large- and medium-sized cities in the United States, micro-hospitals are licensed facilities that tailor their services to the populations they serve. Some offer an emergency department, pharmacy, lab, and imaging center. Others focus on primary care, nutrition services, gynecological and other women’s health services, and minor outpatient surgeries. Thanks to their smaller size and fewer services offered, micro-hospitals charge less than larger traditional hospitals, and like their larger counterparts, are open 24/7.

Brokers who represented the seller on the hospital closing are Chuck Wells with CBC Advisors of Phoenix, Brenna Lacey with Volk & Co. and Paul Serafin with De Rito. The buyer’s broker was David Montijo with CBRE in Tucson.

Wells can be reached at 602.884.8345, Lacey should be contacted at 520.326.3200 and Serafin is at 480.834.8500. To contact Montijo, call 520.323.5100.

To learn more, see RED Comp #5890.