A downtown Phoenix skyscraper once built exclusively for mining giant Freeport-McMoRan has landed fresh financing aimed at turning its long-vacant executive floors into a modern multi-tenant office draw. Foundation 8 has closed a $44.5 million loan secured by the office component of 333 N. Central Avenue, with the debt structured by Hilco Global Real Estate Capital to fund capital improvements, tenant improvements, leasing costs, and other expenses tied to the developer's repositioning plan.
The financing was reported Wednesday by Connect CRE, which detailed how the first mortgage will also refinance the acquisition debt Foundation 8 used to buy the property. According to a release distributed via PR Newswire, Foundation 8 is a Phoenix-based real estate investment and development platform formed as a joint venture between GIA Hospitality, LLC and Trillium Management LLC, and the company's broader focus centers on complex acquisition and repositioning projects across office and hospitality sectors.
Foundation 8 purchased the office component of the mixed-use tower in December 2025 from Peakstone Realty Trust, as The Real Deal reported at the time. Peakstone had listed the property for sale in mid-2025 after Freeport-McMoRan vacated, and the same report notes the land beneath the tower is owned by the City of Phoenix and subject to a 50-year Government Property Lease Excise Tax agreement, a tax abatement structure commonly used to spur central business district development.
A Tower Built for One Tenant, Now Chasing Many
The 26-story tower was completed in 2009 at an estimated construction cost of $175 million and totals roughly 520,000 square feet, designed by architecture firm SmithGroup, according to Construction Reporter. The building was hailed upon opening as one of downtown Phoenix's first new high-rises in nearly a decade. The office floors now hold 246,490 square feet of Class AA space across the top eight floors, with rooftop amenity rights and shared access to the building's parking structure, per Connect CRE's reporting.
Freeport-McMoRan originally occupied the tower as a 15-year corporate headquarters before downsizing into roughly 70,000 square feet across two flex buildings at the Cotton Center business park in southeast Phoenix, a move The Real Deal attributed to the mining company's shift toward hybrid work models that reduced its downtown spatial needs. That exit left the office component vacant and set up the eventual sale to Foundation 8. The tower also includes a Westin Hotel with 242 keys occupying the middle portion of the building, along with 2,522 square feet of ground-floor retail space, according to Connect CRE.
Repositioning Plan Bets on Location and Transit Access
Foundation 8 has engaged Newmark to lead the leasing effort as it works to reposition the office space from a historically single-tenant corporate headquarters into what the company describes as a signature multi-tenant office property. Brokers handling the sale in August 2025 had anticipated the 250,000-square-foot office component would trade in the low-$40 million price range, according to Connect CRE's earlier coverage of the marketing effort led by Newmark following the corporate move-out.
The property sits adjacent to the Valley Metro Light Rail station at Central Avenue and Van Buren Street and within walking distance of the Phoenix Convention Center, Footprint Center, and Chase Field, per the PR Newswire release, positioning it to draw tenants seeking transit access alongside sports and convention amenities in the urban core.
A Market Under Pressure to Reinvent Itself
The refinancing lands amid a downtown Phoenix office market under real strain. Urban core submarkets recorded a 27.3% vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 17.6% in suburban submarkets, according to prior Hoodline reporting citing CBRE data showing suburban Phoenix markets leading regional office space absorption. That gap has pushed owners toward capital improvements, multi-tenant leasing strategies, and outright conversions to stay competitive.
That same elevated vacancy has driven a wave of Phoenix office conversions, including a $200 million plan announced in August to turn a vacant 19-story tower at 400 E. Van Buren St. into a 340-room JW Marriott hotel, with roughly 3.3 million square feet of Phoenix office space already having undergone conversion. Foundation 8 itself is no stranger to adaptive reuse: the company is simultaneously spearheading a $120 million conversion of the former Sheraton Phoenix Crescent hotel into a 600-plus unit residential development called The Crescent in north Phoenix, a project Hoodline detailed in an earlier report on the hotel-to-apartment project.
