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Daily News for Commercial Real Estate & Business – December 15, 2010

To view the December 2010 inBusiness magazine, click here.

Document Management Firm Inks 139,070-SF Deal As part of its acquisition by 2-20 Records Management LLC, Arizona Records Storage Center LLC is expanding its local presence with a 139,070-square-foot lease at Papago Distribution Center Building Two. View article…

Goodwill Leases 20,000 SF In Phoenix Goodwill has leased 20,000 square feet of retail space at Cactus Village Shopping Center, located at 12046 N. 32nd St. in Phoenix. The retail building is located on the southeast corner of Cactus Rd. and N. 31st St. in Maricopa County. The 92,630-square-foot center was built in 1978. View article…

Catalina Terraces Sells for $20.75M Rosemont Realty, a Santa Fe, NM-based commercial property acquisition and asset management firm, purchased Catalina Terraces, a 176,718-square-foot office building in Phoenix, for $20.75 million, or approximately $117 per square foot. Also included in the transaction was an adjoining parking structure. The three-story office property is located at 7878 N. 16th St. and was built in 1990 on 9.7 acres. The building was awarded an Energy Star label in 2006 for its operating efficiency. It was 78 percent occupied at the time of sale. View article…

CASSIDY TURLEY BRE COMMERCIAL HANDLES $4.4 MILLION OFFICE/WAREHOUSE SALE Cassidy Turley BRE Commercial has completed the $4.4 million sale of the 222,457-square-foot Pecos Commerce Center, a multi-tenant office/warehouse property located at 7931 E. Pecos Rd. in Mesa. View article…

Stein Mart closing Ahwatukee branch in March Ahwatukee Foothills will lose one of its fashion hubs next March, when Stein Mart closes its stores at 48th Street and Ray Road. The Florida-based company also recently closed a store at Guadalupe Road and McClintock Drive in Tempe and opened a new 28,000-square-foot facility at Tempe Marketplace, said Nancy Murphy, the discount fashion chain’s director of investor relations. View article…

Bayless Behavioral opening S. Phoenix clinic Bayless Behavioral Health Solutions will open a 4,000-square-foot outpatient clinic in South Phoenix next month that will include 2 acres of land for a large recreational field. Jan. 13 has been set as the opening date for the clinic at 9014 S. Central Ave., which will employ 20 people and serve more than 500 families from t South Phoenix, Buckeye, Laveen and Avondale. View article…

Proposed Heritage Marketplace project may be doomed Long billed as an important catalyst for downtown Gilbert’s revitalization efforts, the proposed Heritage Marketplace project sputtered during the recession and may now be on its last legs. View article…

Chase Tower plaza renovation in downtown Phoenix complete Downtown workers have watched crews over the summer install new concrete steps, trees and benches outside of Chase Tower and remove the giant fountain that was next to the building at Central Avenue and Van Buren Street. The nearly $7 million plaza upgrade was part of a $14 million massive renovation inside and outside the tower that has taken JPMorgan Chase more than a year to complete. View article…

Babaloo’s in Ahwatukee closes, chef signs on at country club Ahwatukee chef Robert Gonzalez was forced to shutter his Foothills Caribbean restaurant at the end of last month. But Monday he will take over the management and menu of the restaurant at the Ahwatukee Country Club. “I’m extremely psyched,” said Gonzalez, who owned and ran Babaloo’s Cuban Caf at 1241 E Chandler Blvd. for 2½ years. View article…

Forecast for Christmas sales revised – upward There’s reason to believe Phoenix area malls and shops will be busier this holiday season than last year. The strong start to the Christmas holiday shopping season convinced the National Retail Federation to revise its sales forecast upward. View article…

Why Suburban Office Markets Will Continue to Flounder In my August column, I hinted that office fundamentals may bottom by the end of the year. The latest monthly data shows that the national vacancy rate fell from 17.6% in September to 17.5% in October. This is the first decline in vacancy recorded since the third quarter of 2007. View article…

If you want a copy of the latest foreclosure spreadsheet, email me and I will send it to you.

Feel free to contact me regarding any of these stories, the current market, distressed commercial real estate opportunities or your property.