The Scottsdale-based Shea Commercial LLC sold the land to ME Development, which has contracted with a group of 20 surgeons to build a 30,000-sf surgery center on the site. The surgeons, acting as North Valley Orthopedic Real Estate Co., will buy the center when it's completed, Bob Deininger, a Shea principal, tells GlobeSt.com.

ME Development, headed by Chris Franklin, will break ground on the one-story surgery center this year, according to Deininger, who brokered the deal along with George Long, an associate with Colliers International's Phoenix office. Design plans have not been finalized. Shea bought the land in April 2004 to develop office condos on the site, but received so much interest about retail development that it decided to sell the parcel. "We realized that the lot was worth a lot more than what we paid for it," Deininger says.

Deininger says several buyers were interested in the parcel, including a church, car wash, doggie day care and coffee shop. "We felt the physicians group was the most sound deal," he explains.