Two high-profile commercial redevelopment projects may be coming to North Central Phoenix this year: once across the street from Xavier College Preparatory, and one potentially at the northwest corner of 16th Street and Bethany Home Road.
The northeast corner of 7th Street and Highland Ave., which includes four commercial buildings and two operating businesses, has been sold to Glendale, Ariz.-based OFMM2LLC. One of the properties includes Urban Cookies Bakeshop, winner of Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” in summer 2011, Dariya’s Home Furnishings and Décor, which has been closed and fenced off for some time, and the midtown location of UltraFit Systems, which lies behind the bakery. Those three locations, encompassing approximately 28,500 square feet of land, were sold for $1.4 million.
Urban Cookies opened in that location in 2006 and will celebrate its 12-year anniversary in October this year. Owners Brady and Shaun Breese revamped the 1950s building, putting in bamboo flooring and low-emission paint, and built a strong following. The Breeses said they will move in March and currently are seeking a nearby central location, which they hope to have up and running by late spring.
“Our central Phoenix customers have given us 11 amazing years, so we won’t be leaving this area,” Breese says, “but it’s time for the next chapter in our business.”
UltraFit Systems’ future plans are not known. Messages left with the company were not returned as of press time.
The vacant property at the actual corner, located at 4701 N. 7th St., includes 10,350 square feet of land and was sold for $850,000.
All buildings will be demolished and a new retail center developed, which will include shop space and a corner drive-thru national credit tenant.
The new development will lie across the street from the Xavier/Brophy College Preparatory Schools, as well as a new 230-unit luxury apartment project being developed by Wood Partners within walking distance of the site on 7th Street.Ray Cashen of Cashen Realty Advisors and Josh Landers of Commercial 33 handled the sales.
Fewer details are available regarding the recent sale of Sunbrite Corner, the single-story retail center located at the northwest corner of 16th Street and Bethany Home Road and first built in the 1950s. Former owners MPB Realty Services sold the center in September of last year for $9.65 million.
Michael Buekers Sr., owner and president of MPB Realty, didn’t want to comment on why the company decided to sell the popular shopping center, but did say the company made a profit on the sale. MPB Realty investing approximately $500,000 in refreshing the center in 2009, sprucing up the façade and the landscaping, repaving the parking in the back, and renaming it to Sunbrite Corner, an homage to the old Sunbrite Market which decades ago sat in the corner where Luci’s Healthy Marketplace now resides.
The new ownership group is Jamel Greenway LLC. The deed filed with the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office shows the same mailing address as the management office of the Town & County Shopping Center, and sources there confirmed that one of the principals with the Town & Country center, James Schuck, is also a new owner of the Sunbrite Center.
Preliminary plans call for the storage area in the back parking lot, which previously was leased by the nearby Shasta Pools & Spas, to be torn down to allow for additional parking. But further details about any additional redevelopment plans were not available as of press time.
