CIM Group Buys Phoenix-Area Industrial Asset for $56M

2250 S. Litchfield Road. Image courtesy of The Opus Group

CIM Group has enhanced its industrial footprint with the addition of the Class A property at 2250 S. Litchfield Road in Goodyear, Ariz., to its holdings. CIM acquired the approximately 450,600-square-foot asset, which sits just across from the Phoenix Goodyear Airport, from The Opus Group for $56 million.

CIM Group has been very active buying, selling and building in 2021 but the 2250 S. Litchfield marks a noted addition to a lengthy list of office and multifamily transactions.

“Phoenix’s strong demographic trends, quality labor pool, access to major population centers of the southwest, and favorable supply/demand fundamentals are a few of the reasons why CIM Group identified Phoenix as an attractive market for our industrial strategy,” CIM Group told Commercial Property Executive.

Cushman & Wakefield brokered the sale of the newly developed industrial cross dock facility.

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A speculative development spanning a 29-acre site in a designated Foreign Trade Zone, 2250 S. Litchfield first opened its 73 dock doors only months ago toward the end of 2020, having been developed, designed and constructed by the Opus family of companies. The property sits just off Interstate 10 on 29 acres roughly 20 miles west of Phoenix and holds the distinction of being the largest site in Goodyear with rail access east of Loop 303.

Currently 2250 S. Litchfield is vacant, but the tenant roster is unlikely to be empty for very long. As noted in a second quarter 2021 report by CBRE, which had been handling leasing on behalf of the seller, market activity continues to accelerate in metropolitan Phoenix. The nearly 6.4 million square feet of positive net absorption marked the highest recorded amount since the fourth quarter of 2013, and the overall average vacancy rate dropped 90 basis points quarter-over-quarter to just 4.7 percent, the lowest rate on record in the metro area.

Master of multi-tasking

CIM Group has been keeping busy across the sectors. Earlier in 2021, after a four-year hold and a repositioning program, CIM Group and Nordblom Co. sold two Boston office towers, 1000 Washington St. and 321 Harrison Ave., to Blackstone Real Estate Partners for their transformation into life sciences properties. The company also sold the iconic Uptown Station, a 1920s-era former department store in Oakland, Calif., that CIM had acquired from Uber in 2017 and converted into a creative office building before leasing the entire 397,000-square-foot property to Square, Inc. As for what comes next, CIM Group said, “CIM is advancing a program to acquire more industrial assets in 2021 and 2022.”