The 315,000-sf neighborhood center, located at the intersection of Camelback Road and 20th Street, was considered to be an underperforming asset when VGA acquired it in 1998. "We'd sold it to them at the time and it needed a variety of things done," Cam Stanton, first vice president with CB Richard Ellis Inc. in Phoenix, tells GlobeSt.com. This time around, he was representing the buyers, Red Mountain Retail Group of Santa Ana, CA and Lemieux Investments of Paradise Valley, AZ.

Stanton says VGA, which was self-represented, spent eight years repositioning and re-leasing the center. It's presently stabilized at 90%, with tenants that include Trader Joe's, Marriott Courtyard Hotel, Linens 'n Things, LA Fitness and Stuart Anderson's Black Angus Restaurant.

"Overall, the property is in decent shape," Stanton says. "The buyers will have some re-leasing to do. And ultimately if they can gain control of the land from the ground owners, either by acquiring a fee title to the land or making the landowner a partner, they'll have the potential to do either high-rise office or residential there." The center sits on 24 acres owned by the Mars family heirs of M&M/Mars Inc. of Elizabethtown, PA.