Eyeing a new skyline profile, the Monroe office tower, towering at 19 stories over downtown Phoenix, has been pegged with a price tag of $24 million – a number that breaks down to roughly $94 per square foot. Situated at 111 W. Monroe St., the notable structure has elicited interest from a diverse pool of investors since hitting the market, as ABC15 reported. "We've been in the market a couple of months and have been conducting tours and really entertaining a variety of interested investors and bids, which we are responding to," CJ Osbrink of Newark Group Inc. commented, according to ABC15's coverage.
At present, the building encompasses around 256,682 square feet and is 31% leased out to tenants, with a mix of banking and health services businesses, and not forgetting the ground floor retail. Constructed back in the 1960s, the Monroe recently received a modern refresh, with retail upgrades, a fitness center installation, lobby touch-ups, a tenant lounge area, and elevator lobby enhancements, the Business Journal details.
Its location places the Monroe in an Opportunity Zone with downtown zoning – a recipe for diverse potential uses. "The building itself ... is set up very appropriately for a conversion to something else other than office," Osbrink told the Business Journal. He further expounded that the tower's layout, including smaller floor plates of 15,000 square feet and high vacancy, makes it a prime pick for residential transformation.
But while the Monroe awaits its fate, the downtown Phoenix office scene is showing signs of post-pandemic revival. Granite Point Mortgage Trust, the New York-headquartered current owner, got a hold of the Monroe through a deed in lieu of foreclosure last year. With downtown Phoenix gaining traction as a safe, vibrant live-work-play environment, other office buildings are either snapping up new deals or undergoing renovations for multifaceted usage, just walking distance from the Monroe's doors.
Glimmers of recovery have been seen elsewhere in Phoenix's office sector: despite a slow kickoff to 2024, sales are projected to bounce back in the second quarter. According to CommercialEdge data relayed by the Business Journal, Metro Phoenix accumulated $73 million in office sales in the first quarter, out of a national sum of $5.4 billion. Columbus Properties Inc. from New York made the year's largest office purchase in April, shelling out a cool $86.1 million for the 24th at Camelback tower, in a deal brokered by none other than Newmark's Osbrink team.
