Iowa Investment Firm Stamps $5-Mil Office Purchase

TEMPE, AZ-An Iowa-based real estate investment company has taken the reins to 45,000-sf office building in Tempe. The buyer is paying $5 million to Principal Capital Group.

MJA Investments Inc., a Des Moines investment firm, has shelled out more than $111 per sf for Rural Court, located at 4450 S. Rural Rd. The office building is situated near Rural Road’s intersection with Alameda Drive and about a mile north of Superstition Freeway. It also is 1 1/2 miles south of Arizona State University. The Phoenix office of Grubb & Ellis, with brokers Stan Safer and Eric Wichterman, represented both parties in the sale.

Tempe’s office market is riding at 15.1% vacancy, just a shade below the Valley’s average. Tempe has fared better this year than most submarkets, posting a negative absorption of 37,000 sf, according to a recent survey by Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Phoenix team. It is one of five submarkets in the region reflecting negative net office absorption this year.