The Pavilions at Talking Stick shopping center, located within the Talking Stick Entertainment District on the northwestern edge of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, was acquired by Pavilions SRPMIC De Rito JV, LLC, a new joint venture between the SRPMIC and De Rito Partners Development, Inc.  

The purchase was officially completed January 16 when the SRPMIC closed on the transaction.

“The Community’s ownership will provide solid financial investment returns each year and allows us to diversify some of our long term returns from our typical equity and fixed income investments,” said SRPMIC Treasurer Doug Patterson.

“I am very excited that the Community acquired such an important asset, and I am looking forward to watching the property continue to thrive and improve over the years,” he added.

Two of the major anchor stores of the Pavilions are Target and Home Depot; other stores in the Pavilions include David’s Bridal, Hobby Lobby, PopStroke, Roadhouse Cinemas, iFly, Mavrix and Guitar Center. Other destinations near the Pavilions include Medieval Times, and two enterprises of the SRPMIC, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick and Talking Stick Resort.

In a press release on January 29, the company said that the acquisition of the 1.3 million-square-foot Pavilions will “strengthen its position as a leader in the Arizona commercial real estate market.”

While the financial details of the transaction are not available at this time, the Community acquired a large majority ownership share, with De Rito Partners continuing as a minority partner.

A goal of the company is to continue the day-to-day operations as is with no major changes.

The opportunity to acquire an ownership in the Pavilions was brought to the Community by De Rito Partners a little over 2 years ago, according to Patterson.

He explained that the majority owner was a real estate investment company based in California called Pacific Coast Capital Partners (PCCP). PCCP acquired the majority ownership interest from GE Capital in 2015. 

PCCP decided to sell the asset, and because of the importance of the Pavilions to the Community and to the Talking Stick Entertainment District, Patterson said that Council decided that they wanted to pursue the acquisition.

The Community felt that the financial returns were positive, and the acquisition allowed the Community to control the future of the Pavilions.

“Obviously, an asset of this size takes a lot of due diligence from financial, environmental, risk mitigation, legal, etc.,” said Patterson. 

“A lot of people did a lot of work over the last 2 years to get to this point.  That included Council, Admin, the Office of General Counsel, Treasury and our Salt River Devco team.”

Planning for the Pavilions began in 1986 with the Vestar Development Company, in partnership with the Horlacher Family, and was developed in the mid-1990’s with the original name the Scottsdale Pavilions.

In 2008, Marty De Rito with De Rito Partners Development, Inc. bought the Pavilions from the Horlacher Family for $88 million and announced an investment of $25 million in upgrades. At that time, the Pavilions was 1 million square feet and 46% leased.

Today the Pavilions boasts a 96% occupancy rate.

Stay tuned in a future issue of O’odham Action News for continued coverage of the purchase of the Pavilions focusing on the history of the land.