Downtown Phoenix building trades hands in auction
Dec 1, 2024, 6:30 AM
The Heard building in downtown Phoenix is the first skyscraper in the area when it was built in 1919. (Jim Poulin/Phoenix Business Journal)
(Jim Poulin/Phoenix Business Journal)
The historic Heard Building in downtown Phoenix — notable for its Mexican grizzly bear mural — is in the hands of a new owner.
The eight-story office high rise went up for auction on Nov. 26 after the lender, SMS Financial VW LLC, filed a notice of trustee sale for the property earlier this year.
National coworking operator Expansive, previously known as Novel Coworking, was the most recent owner of the building after it acquired the property in 2019 for $11.4 million. The unpaid principal balance on its loan was nearly $10.9 million when the notice of trustee sale was filed on Aug. 22, according to Maricopa County documents.
After bidding opened at $5.2 million on Nov. 26, a back and forth ensued between the lender of the office building and a local real estate investor. The bidding ended at $5.5 million.
Everardo Chavez, a real estate broker at West USA Realty, stood with his father and brother as they made the winning bid outside the Arizona Superior Court building in downtown Phoenix on Tuesday. Chavez cited the building’s historic past among the reasons for his interest in the site, adding that his family was “excited to add on to our portfolio” in the Phoenix area.
This story is posted in partnership with Phoenix Business Journal. Click to read the full story.
