GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Three-Month Owner Flips Trophy for $129M

PHOENIX-For the second time in three months, Downtown’s 26-story One Renaissance Square has been sold to an out-of-state buyer. First-time Valley buyer Pauls Corp. of Denver picked up the trophy for $128.8 million or $8.8 million more than Los Angeles-based seller Maguire Properties paid for the building just three months ago.

Philip Marino with Intercon Wet Realty Advisors, who handled the transaction for the buyer, tells GlobeSt.com that the firm beat out at least 15 other bidders from across the country to take the 484,000-sf trophy asset at 2 N. Central Ave. “It was a very competitive bidding process,” he says.

Marino says the buyer’s reputation for closing the deal made its high bid offer particularly attractive for the seller. The 98%-leased class A office building was part of a $1.5-billion, 10-property portfolio that Maguire purchased from CommonWealth Partners, Rockefeller Group International Inc. and CalPERS.

The Pauls Corp., which owns assets in Toronto, Calgary, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Denver, had focused its acquisition strategy on the Phoenix market because of the Valley’s rapid growth and strong investment potential. Marino says the investment group plans to make other acquisitions in the Valley and Southern California, another strong investment market. “It was an excellent asset for them to gain access into the Phoenix market being located in the downtown submarket with an extremely strong growth forecast,” he says. The tower, completed in 1987, counts among its lead tenants as the law firms of Quarles & Brady Streich Lang, Bryan Cave and Gammage & Burnham plus Ernst & Young LLP.

Adam Edwards and Steve Silk, principals at Secured Capital Corp in Los Angeles, handled the transaction for the seller. Assisting Marino with negotiations for the buyer was Mark Seale of CB Richard Ellis Inc. in Phoenix.