Roger Sachar formed Traditions Apartments LLC to acquire the eight-year-old development at 4450 E. Southern Ave. in Mesa from Magellan Tradition Property LP, a partnership formed by Phoenix based developer Trillium Residential LLC. "We had a lot of interest in the property--the market really liked it," says David Fogler, a VP with Phoenix-based Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial LLC. "There aren't a lot of small class A properties that are available, usually they're much larger and smaller investors aren't interested."

Fogler tells GlobeSt.com that the Traditions Apartments received 12 offers before going under contract to Sachar. It took six months to close the deal because Sachar had to go through a lengthy process to assume an existing HUD 221(d)4 loan for $7.8 million with an interest rate of 6%, says Fogler, who partnered with Grubb's Steve Nicoluzakis to sell the asset.

"Roger had a good reputation with HUD because he had owned an apartment property with a HUD loan on it for 10 years," Fogler explains. He predicts Sachar will likely to hold the Traditions Apartments as a long-term investment as well. "This part of Mesa is rapidly growing," he says, "and the Traditions Apartments is right in the middle of all the growth."