With Land Swap, Rivulon Development is Underway

By: Paul Dionne | Vizzda

Master Plan for Rivulon by Butler Design Group

With the transfer of 5.345 acres from Nationwide Realty Investors--as master developer--to LA Fitness in exchange for 17.06 acres at the northwest corner of the same development, Phase I of the 252-acre Rivulon mixed-use development in Gilbert is officially underway. 

The transfer was strictly a barter or trade transaction, with no consideration or boot changing hands. The site transferred to LA Fitness is planned for a 45k SF gym, while renderings of Phase I call for a total of 246k SF in new office development in four buildings. Following the transfer, Brent Berge of Berge Auto Group acquired the parcel from LA Fitness for $3.7m--or $15.03 per square foot--in a sale-leaseback transaction with a 15-year firm term and three 5-year extensions.

When complete, Rivulon will total 3.1m SF of new office space and 500k SF of integrated restaurant and retail use on a 252-acre parcel at the northeast corner of the Loop 202 San Tan Freeway and Gilbert Road. According to Nationwide, construction is set to begin on Phase I in the Fall of 2014. Phase I is comprised of roughly 30 acres with 13.5 acres dedicated to retail development, including an inline space and two pads in addition to the LA Fitness and 16.5 acres dedicated to developing the 246k SF office mentioned above. The remaining phases call for 116.3 acres of office use and 57.5 acres of retail use, with a partially assembled fifty acre parcel to the southeast that has yet to be rezoned.

Vizzda tracked the sale history of the assemblage that will become Rivulon going back to 2006, when Kimco Realty and DeRito Partners acquired a portion of the site from Continental Homes for $13,172,585. DeRito made three additional acquisitions that year with Donald Oliphant as a partner totaling $15,275,930 and one additional acquisition with Kimco in 2007 for $8,094,010, bringing their total to $21,266,595. Nationwide began acquiring the assemblage from Kimco, DeRito and Oliphant partnerships, as well as historical land holders in several transactions totaling at least $88,571,022.

LA Fitness’ portion was tracked back to a 1996 acquisition by Arnold Schlessinger and Ron McRea in which they acquired 20 acres at the southeast hard corner of Gilbert & Pecos Roads for $700k. Exxon Mobile acquired the site in 2000 for $3,267,318 and sold back everything except 2.95 acres at the hard corner for $3.25m in 2004. Less than two years later, Schlessinger and McRea sold the remaining parcel for $10m to Walt Brown and Tim Dollanger of Diversified partners, who--in turn--sold to LA Fitness for $12,083,799 in June of 2007.

To Contact the Author:
Paul Dionne - pdionne@vizzda.com