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Friday, February 1, 2008
Wolff takes over Tempe lake project
The Business Journal of Phoenix - by Jan Buchholz Phoenix Business Journal
The Wolff Co. of Scottsdale quietly purchased 27 acres last year for the proposed Pier 202 project in Tempe and now is moving ahead with alternate plans for the site.
Wolff paid $43 million in August for the parcel, which lies north of Rio Salado Parkway and east of Rural Road.
The original developer, a joint venture of California-based Laguna Pacific Properties and Barker Pacific Group, paid the city of Tempe $42.5 million for the land just a few weeks earlier. The City Council had approved plans by the partnership, dubbed Pier 202 LLC, to develop 3.6 million square feet of hotel, retail, residential and office space on the site.
Pier 202 LLC then sold almost all of its interest in the project to The Wolff Co. in a deal that went largely unreported, but was confirmed this week.
"(Pier 202) had everything approved," said Peter Wolff, co-president and principal of The Wolff Co. "We tend to like to pick something up when it's all figured out. They created a bunch of value."
Brad Gorman, CEO of Laguna Pacific Properties and the point person for Pier 202 LLC, said The Wolff Co. merely is a "capital partner." He disputed reports that Wolff had taken over management of the project and likely would reconfigure it.
"That hasn't been discussed with Peter," Gorman said. "I'm not at liberty to discuss the deal."
Wolff, however, said his company is working with the project's previous architects and planners along with several new consultants. His company hasn't decided whether to keep the name Pier 202 for the project or use another moniker that has been used from time to time, The Pier at Town Lake.
"We have a lot of great ideas, but we're not quite ready for prime time," Wolff said. "We will be able to share the vision in March."
He acknowledged that Gorman and Mike Barker of Barker Pacific Group still have an interest in the project, but said it is "a tiny equity hold."
"We love Brad and Mike ... they took a lot of heat, but Brad has performed everything he said he would perform," Wolff said.
The "heat" he referred to stemmed in part from published reports that Gorman was convicted in California in 1997 of felony grand theft in connection with a real estate transaction. Details are not available because the Los Angeles County Superior Court sealed the case records in 2000. In published statements sent to other media last spring, Gorman said he had been falsely accused.
Those allegations did not deter the city of Tempe from selecting Pier 202 LLC in May 2007 to develop the land.
Meanwhile, The Wolff Co. is negotiating with Arizona State University to purchase an adjacent 9 acres at the northeast corner of Rio Salado Parkway and Rural Road, which likely would be incorporated into the revised plans.
Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman, who along with the council supported the Pier 202 LLC group, said he is aware The Wolff Co. is in the lead now, but said he was not privy to the details of the sales transaction between that company and Pier 202 LLC.
"The Wolff Co. is the right fit to take the lead," he said. "This is a ... great leap forward in the right direction."
Hallman said he is confident Wolff will meet all prenegotiated entitlements, financial deadlines, building restrictions and other contingencies imposed by the city on Pier 202 LLC.
The Wolff Co. is raising its profile locally. The long-standing real estate investment firm was founded in 1949 in Spokane, Wash., by Wolff's grandfather, Alvin Wolff Sr. Later, Alvin Wolff Jr. took the reins.
In 2001, Peter Wolff and his three brothers decided to move the family business to Scottsdale "for better access and economies."
For a few years after that, the company focused on acquisitions, mostly apartments along the West Coast.
"We've only recently been doing deals in our own backyard," Wolff said.
The Wolff Co. became a capital partner in the redevelopment of the Dial Corp.'s headquarters -- the company is moving to new digs north of Loop 101, east of Kierland Commons in Scottsdale. Its partners are Glimcher Realty Trust and Vanguard City Home.
The Wolff Co. also is a development partner with Vanguard City Home in Safari Drive, the mixed-use project under construction along the Arizona Canal northeast of Scottsdale and Camelback roads.
"That's going to be an amazing project," Wolff said.
He's equally keen about the firm's Tempe plans.
"The Pier project ... it's a fabulous location. We're extremely excited," he said.
Get Connected
The Wolff Co.:
www.awolff.com
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