Camelback Tower Sells for $86M, Phoenix's Biggest Office Deal of 2026

A 10-story office tower on Camelback Road just sold for $86 million, marking the largest single-building office transaction in Phoenix so far this year. Esplanade III, a 222,820-square-foot trophy building at 2415 E. Camelback Road, was acquired by Southwest Value Partners, a joint venture of Transwestern and C-III Capital Partners, according to the deal's details. The building is currently 83.4% leased and counts tenants including Pederson Group, Inc., Vanguard Realty Advisors, Vestar, Velocity Retail Group, Barclay Group, and Husch Blackwell.

The $86 million price tag marks Phoenix's largest single-building office deal of 2026 to date, according to Connect CRE. The sale was reported by author Mike Boyd in the outlet's Phoenix & Southwest section. Will Mast, Charlie von Arentschildt, and Ben Geelan represented the seller in the transaction, per the article.

A Bounce-Back After a Discounted 2019 Sale

Esplanade III's new price represents a significant rebound from its recent sales history. The Transwestern partnership acquired the building for $60.2 million in an all-cash deal in July 2019, per Phoenix Business Journal reporting cited in the article. Before that, Crow Holdings Capital Partners had purchased the tower for $74.3 million, or roughly $340 per square foot, according to Real Estate Daily News reporting from March 2015.

That trajectory, from $74.3 million in 2015 down to $60.2 million in 2019 and now up to $86 million, reflects strong institutional conviction in the Camelback Corridor, as reported by Bisnow. The building was originally developed by Opus in 1997 and is a LEED Gold-certified Class A property with subterranean parking, according to a July 2019 report from AZ Big Media.

Below-Market Rents Point to Upside for New Owner

Part of the appeal for Southwest Value Partners appears tied to the building's rent roll. Average in-place rental rates at Esplanade III sat at $46.79 per square foot, which stood 54% below the top-of-market rental rates in the Camelback Corridor submarket, according to investment marketing materials published by JLL in July 2026. The building also carries a weighted average unexpired lease term of just 4.4 years, meaning new ownership could have chances to push rents higher as leases roll over in the coming years.

Esplanade III traded on its own, but the surrounding 1.3-million-square-foot Esplanade campus remains split among other owners. The remaining four buildings, Esplanades I, II, IV, and V, are co-owned by Monarch Alternative Capital and Tourmaline Capital Partners, Bisnow reported.

How the Deal Stacks Up Against Other Phoenix Trades

Even at $86 million, Esplanade III wasn't the single largest office trade in the Valley this year. That distinction belongs to LXP Industrial Trust's $103 million acquisition of the 628,000-square-foot former University of Phoenix multi-building property, which closed in May 2026, per Bisnow's reporting. Esplanade III's sale still lands within range of previous Camelback Corridor high-water marks, including the 2024 sale of 24th at Camelback II for $97.9 million and the adjacent 24th at Camelback I for $86.1 million.

The sale arrives amid a broader shift favoring suburban office nodes over downtown towers. Phoenix suburban office submarkets maintained a 17.6% vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2026, compared with a 27.3% vacancy rate in the city's urban core, according to Hoodline's coverage of Phoenix office trends. Zero speculative office buildings broke ground in Greater Phoenix during that same quarter, leaving total active office construction at just 450,000 square feet regionwide.

Leasing activity has also picked up heading into the back half of the year. Greater Phoenix office leasing reached 1.1 million square feet in the second quarter of 2026, up from 924,000 square feet in the first quarter, with the Camelback/Piestewa Peak submarket capturing 92,000 square feet of that total, according to Bisnow's citation of CBRE data. Tight supply and steady suburban demand help explain why a nearly three-decade-old tower on Camelback Road could still command Phoenix's biggest office check of the year.