A venture formed by Wood Partners in Marietta, Ga. (Ryan Dearborn, CEO) plans to develop 220 apartments at the southeast corner of N. 7th Avenue and W. Fillmore Street in downtown Phoenix. ALTA Fillmore LLC (Wood Partners entity) assembled the 4.09-acre site in two cash transactions totaling just under $4.8 million. Morgensen Inc. in Cody, WY, sold 3.14 acres for $3.685 million. That parcel is occupied by a roughly 30,000-square-foot commercial building that will be razed. Junction LLC in Carefree sold a nearly 1-acre parcel to complete the assemblage. That property, with an address of 345 N. 7th Avenue, sold for $1.11 + million. The land is now occupied by a 6,000 square-foot commercial structure that will also be demolished. Wood Partners was represented in the transaction by Kim C. Kristoff of NAI Horizon in Phoenix. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank in Phoenix represented the sellers.
The proposed apartment project will anchor the northwest corner of the Downtown Core while enhancing quality lifestyle by enhancing the potential of a live and work community with access to Downtown community activities only a short walk away. Todd Taylor, Wood Partners, realizes the potential of Downtown Phoenix, “We are very excited about this real estate given the dynamism and renaissance underway in downtown phoenix today.” The proposed upscale rental community is being called Alta Fillmore. Design plans from Biltform Architecture in Phoenix show a four-story structure with elevator service, balconies, shading and perimeter landscaping. The gated community will have studio, one and two-bedroom units ranging from roughly 575 to 1,175 square feet. Rental rates are yet to be determined. Development cost (land and buildings) is estimated by Wood Partners at about $35 million. Wood Partners has an unidentified equity partner that was secured through NorthMarq Capital in Phoenix.
Reached for comment, Council member Michael Nowakowski said “the City of Phoenix benefits tremendously by forward thinking, quality development by national firms such as Wood Partners that improve the human experience of the city neighborhoods while making close-in accessibility possible for the young working professional and families alike.”
Construction is slated to start in the second quarter of 2015, with an opening to follow in the second quarter 2016. The build out is expected to take 21 months. The contractor is WP West Builders Arizona LLC, an affiliate of Wood Partners. In the past 15 months, it has been reported that the privately-held Wood Partners has bought five multi-family development sites in Phoenix, Chandler, Scottsdale and Tempe to build a total of 1,313 apartments. Wood Partners reports seeking several other sites in the region and is actively negotiating a half dozen properties to anticipate a development portfolio over the next half decade.
