By Brandon Brown | Phoenix Business Journal
As the pandemic subsides, investors – many from out of state – are swooping in and buying up retail real estate properties across the Phoenix area.
In the early days of the pandemic when retailers and restaurant owners saw revenue dry up and couldn’t pay rent, no one really wanted to buy retail properties, said Steve Julius, the senior managing director at the Phoenix office of Newmark Group.
“It was a bumpy year. Everything was put on hold and people were waiting to see what happens,” Julius said.
In 2020, the sales volume of multi-tenant retail properties in metro Phoenix dropped 58% compared to the previous year, Julius said. But he thinks that is turning around as he and his team see an uptick in transactions and interest from investors.
“We have recently toured seasoned, experienced investors from Dallas, Cincinnati, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, New York, Atlanta and of course Southern and Northern California, many of them looking to make their first purchase in Phoenix,” Julius said. “Investors are attracted to our state’s population growth and ability to attract national employers, which is led by our political and tax policies, plus cost of living.”
While visits from investors in California is nothing new to Arizona’s real estate market, Newmark’s team said the investors coming from the rest of the country are really having an impact in the Valley.
“They are coming here and driving prices up,” said Chase Dorsett, an associate director at Newmark.
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