Phoenix firm buys Crosstown Center for $199 million

A Phoenix-based company that ranks among Arizona’s largest land owners and whose principals have ties to several professional sports teams has acquired a pair of Brandon office buildings for just under $200 million.

JDM Partners, whose partners once owned the Phoenix Suns of the NBA and Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, acquired the Crosstown Center project at 9519-9527 Delaney Creek Blvd., Hillsborough County property records show.

Both Brandon buildings were developed and are occupied by USAA, a San Antonio, Texas financial advisor and insurer of military personnel with a net worth of more than $30 billion.

The Crosstown Center complex also was part of a $385 million portfolio deal with USAA Real Estate that also included an office building in Plano, Texas.

In each case, USAA has leases in place through at least 2032. The sale was negotiated by commercial real estate brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield. JDM officials in Phoenix did not return telephone calls for comment on the acquisitions.

The pair of Brandon buildings, which USAA began developing in 2015 based on a Gensler design, contain 521,824 square feet. USAA acquired the property in September 2014 and July 2017 for a combined $18.5 million, records show.

USAA developed Crosstown Center, which in addition to its office space contains a café, fitness center and health care clinic among its amenities, to house up to 1,200 workers.

The larger of the two properties, with 268,924 square feet on 16.25 acres, is a six-story building at 9527 Delaney Creek Blvd. In the sale, it was valued at $106 million.

Its companion building, at 9519 Delaney Creek Blvd., measures 252,900 square feet and was delivered on 8.5 acres earlier this year. It was valued at $93 million for the purpose of the transaction.

JDM, formed in 1983, is comprised of partners Jerry Colangelo, David Eaton and Mel Shultz. In addition to the Suns and Diamondbacks, which they sold in 2004 and 2005, respectively, the trio also has had ownership interests in the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, the Arizona Sandsharks pro soccer team and others.

JDM also is among Arizona’s most proliferate developers. The company developed the Suns’ US Airways Center and Chase Field for the Diamondbacks, as well as the 5,000-seat Comerica Theatre.

It also developed, beginning in 2002, a 33,800-acre master-planned community known as Douglas Ranch slated to have 119,000 residences and as much as 58 million square feet of commercial space; a 286-acre business park called Cotton Center that contains more than three million square feet; and a 26,000-acre community in Pagosa Springs, Colo.

JDM’s portfolio also contains a technology office occupied by USAA in Tempe, Ariz., according to the company’s website.