McCarthy Building Companies relocated its Southwest division offices to the 6225 N. 24th St. building located within the prestigious Arizona Biltmore development in Phoenix.
The nearly 150 year-old construction firm, which has had a presence in the Valley since 1979, relocated from Hayden Ferry Lakeside in Tempe to a building that was purchased and renovated by the company through a partnership with MRL Partners, a commercial real estate investment and advisory company headed by Randy Levin, in March of 2012.
MRL and McCarthy created a partnership to purchase and share a building as a long-term real estate investment strategy designed to maximize the down market opportunities, following Levin’s departure as vice president of SunCor Development Company’s commercial development division in mid-2010.
MRL Partners identified and evaluated potential options for purchase, and upon evaluating the renovation needs and costs with McCarthy, and its ability to achieve investment goals, the partnership closed on the Biltmore building and began renovation plans. MRL Partners manages the asset, where McCarthy and MRL Partners occupy approximately (67%) of the fully-leased, newly renovated office space.
McCarthy Building Companies took on the challenge of renovating the 32 year-old, nearly 42,000 SF building, in dire need of upgrades and repairs, to a Class A standard office property. The new space, which McCarthy recently occupied, was designed to showcase the surrounding mountain views and allow for an abundance of natural sunlight to flow through the office with the use of exterior building glass, and glass office fronts.
“Randy Levin and our project team saw a ‘diamond in the rough’ when we toured the worn and dated building in a prime Phoenix location,” said Bo Calbert, president of McCarthy Building Companies Southwest Division.
“The slow real estate market combined with the condition of the building put us in a position to buy a great asset with MRL Partners, while many others passed it over. Together with MRL Partners we are using our combined expertise in real estate investments and construction to transform an existing distressed building into premier office space.”
“Recessions are great generators of entrepreneurialism,” said Levin, CEO and managing member of MRL Partners. “McCarthy’s desire to capitalize on the down market combined with my experience in real estate investment and property management created an ideal partnership that demonstrates how a boutique entrepreneurial real estate investment company can successfully teamed with a large national company for making prudent investments.”
“Phoenix Design One, Inc. was delighted to be a part of the team that helped McCarthy create their new office space in Phoenix,” said Jennie Mayer, Associate with PDO. “Our company was part of the original construction team for the building many years ago and being part of the transformation team to carry out McCarthy’s vision was quite an honor.
“The new space truly illustrates McCarthy’s commitment to be the best builder in America by showcasing the use of classic building materials. We are proud of the process, product and the relationship we formed through this team effort.”
Other features of McCarthy’s new 2 1/2-floor office space include a modern, modified open ceiling architectural look, which exposes framing studs along with system components and the structural steel frame; polished concrete floors along with raw steel islands and honed block accent walls to highlight raw building elements; five high-tech conference rooms with ipad-automation; and a large training room to accommodate up to 75, or be divided into two smaller training rooms with an operable partition.
The nearly 90 work stations and common areas have occupancy sensors for energy efficient lighting as well as new furniture design that accommodates special technology requirements for building; writable wall surfaces for planning and development in lieu of the standard dry erase boards and a comfortable break room with large TVs and views of the Biltmore golf course.
