Phoenix – New World Real Estate Investment I LLC in San Jose, Costa Rica paid $12.2 million ($161.55 per foot) to purchase a 75,518-square-foot office project located in the Deer Valley area of north Phoenix. The seller in the cash transaction was M-Edison Co. LLC/M-Whispering Wind LLC, both companies formed by The Mack Co. in Phoenix (Ralph Henig, principal). The sale was brokered by Barry Gabel and Mindy Korth of CBRE in Phoenix.
The two-building complex is comprised of a 46,128-square-foot structure at 2225 W. Whispering Wind Drive and a 29,390-square-foot office at 2205 W. Whispering Wind Drive. The project, which is called Whispering Wind Corp. Center, was developed in 2007 and is fully leased. The entities affiliated with Mack Co. and Henig paid just under $5.672 million ($75.10 per foot) to purchase the property in March 2011 when it was about 60 percent leased.
BREW may not be so interested in the Costa Rican investment except for that multiple sources say the company is definitely interested in spending significantly greater amounts to add to its holdings in the Phoenix area. Gerrit Steenblik of the Phoenix lawfirm Polsnelli Shughart says he was one of multiple attorneys with his firm that worked with the Costa Rican buyer. Steenblik said while he could not talk about the Costa Rican investors, that he would pass along our interest in speaking with them and asked that we email the questions we were interested in having answered. We asked the same of Gabel, the CBRE agent who assisted in brokering the sale and two representatives of Stewart Title & Trust Inc. in Phoenix which handled the escrow. As of press time, none of the various parties who assisted the Costa Rican investors in the Phoenix investment had returned any calls or emails. It is not unusual for some companies to try and protect their identities when buying real estate in Arizona, which is considered to be a “disclosure” state in which the transactions are typically recorded through an Affidavit of Property Value filed in Maricopa County.
While a $12.2 million acquisition in Maricopa County in today’s market maybe significant enough to raise an eyebrow, it’s far from some recent investments in the Valley. What we do know about the buyer is that it is a private firm which has incorporated in Delaware, thus avoiding various filings and disclosures required in most states. Our sources say New World Real Estate Investment I LLC was created solely for the purpose of this transaction. The buyer uses a P.O. Box in San Jose, which is completely untraceable to any entity whatsoever. So for now the owner of the Whispering Wind Corp. Center has succeeded in stumping the band. We would send them a BREW t-shirt or some sort of small gift acknowledging their accomplishment, but we don’t know who or where to send it.
Learn more from Steenblik at (602) 650-2348. Call the CBRE agents at (602) 735-5555. Talk to Henig at (480) 970-0900. Jim Balsbaugh of Stewart Title is at (480) 557-4569.
