Nuveen Sells Phoenix Office Building for $62M

Camelback Center. Image courtesy of JLL

Nuveen Real Estate has closed the $61.8 million sale of Camelback Center, a 236,553-square-foot multi-tenant office building located at 2355 E. Camelback Road in Phoenix. A JLL Capital Markets team marketed the property on behalf of the seller and procured the buyer, Bridge Investment Group.

Camelback Center was constructed in 2000 and includes nine stories of Class A office space, according to CommercialEdge data. The property is 82 percent leased to a broad array of tenants, including Schlesinger Group, Kolbe Corp., Gilbane and Eide Bailly, the same source shows.

The building’s amenities include an outdoor patio, conference facility, recreation areas and 1,500 square feet of retail space. The complex is situated at the intersection of 24th Street and Camelback Road, within 5 miles of downtown Phoenix and close to many of the city’s largest retail, dining and entertainment attractions.

The JLL team representing Nuveen was led by Senior Managing Director Ben Geelan and Senior Director Will Mast. The land-constrained Camelback Corridor, where the property is located, has seen an influx of tech companies in recent years, capitalizing on the Millennial workforce surrounding the area, Mast said in prepared remarks. Previously, it was mostly financial, insurance, real estate and legal organizations that preferred the location.

Phoenix’s smoldering office market

The sale of Camelback Center takes places after more than six months of solid returns for the Phoenix metro’s office sector. The total transaction volume in the city adds up to $1.8 billion year-to-date as of July, a nearly threefold increase in comparison to the same period of 2021, alongside a per-square-foot value at 6.8 percent above the national average, a recent CommercialEdge report shows.

At the same time, vacancy is on the rise, hitting 22.5 percent in the second quarter of the year, of which sublease vacancy represents 4 percent, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report. The figures are expected to increase further, as employers continue downsizing and subletting their leased space amid a nationwide shift in office culture, occupancy and working habits.

Other recent Phoenix-area office deals are Orsett Properties’ $53.1 million sale of The Reserve at San Tan, a 149,321-square-foot office campus in Gilbert, as well as Alturas Gainey Ranch’s acquisition of Gainey Ranch Town Center I & II, a two-property office park in Scottsdale.