Foreign capital is expanding in Phoenix. The Phoenix metro has seen a growth spurt in recent years that has attracted investors from across the US. Now, foreign capital sources are catching the Phoenix fever. Canadian investors, which have always been active in Phoenix, are looking to increase exposure to the market, while new players, including funds from the Middle East and European investors, have been actively bidding on opportunities. "We are seeing non-traditional foreign investors taking a closer look at the Phoenix metro area," Tivon Moffitt, SVP in JLL's Phoenix office, tells GlobeSt.com. "Regent Properties did a large recapitalization of a office portfolio that they owned in Phoenix, and the recap partner was based out of the Middle East. On a smaller scale, we sold a single-tenant office building in the Southeast Valley leased to Walgreens. There was very significant investor interest in that project, and one of those investors we saw was a Middle Eastern fund looking to invest in Phoenix. That is rare for us, but we had an investor specifically looking to grown and expand in this market. Those are positive trends for the greater Phoenix metro area because some of those foreign capital investors may have typically been focused on tier-1 cities." Moffitt along with JLL SVP Peter Bauman, managing director Lynn LaChapelle and senior managing director Dennis Desmond brokered the sale of the Stapley Center in Mesa. The team sold the three-building, 277,264-square-foot class-A office campus to Canadian Artis REIT on behalf of Invesco Real Estate. Artis has been a long-time owner in the Phoenix market, but wanted to increase its exposure and saw the opportunity to own a stable office asset, even in a suburban market like Mesa. Artist was the only foreign bidder on the deal, competing alongside institutions. "In my experience, Canadian buyers and German buyers are the primary source of offshore investment in Phoenix," Desmond tells GlobeSt.com. "Canadian investors have been coming here for years. They winter here and live here, and they are familiar with the market. I think that has a lot to do with it. They are familiar with the market and they understand it better than their foreign counterparts." Investors are finding more opportunities and higher yields in the Phoenix market, which recovered from the recession later than other West Coast cities and likely has a long runway of growth ahead, barring an economic event. "We are continually a higher yielding investment market for outside sources of capital, whether domestic or foreign," Bauman tells GlobeSt.com. "I think that is what drives interest to this area, along with our good economic fundamentals and job growth." This will also likely continue to drive new capital sources, both foreign and domestic, to the Phoenix market. "I don't see any slow down in foreign capital coming into our market," adds Bauman. "We are one of the top five growth markets and we are among the top ten growing MSAs. We check a lot of boxes for different investors. Phoenix has grown up from its boom-bust market cycle." The sales price of the Stapley Center was not disclosed.