Soltrust Residential turns Feds’ former Phoenix offices into housing

Soltrust Residential REIT has turned a Phoenix office building full of federal narcotics sleuths into apartments.

The Seattle-based real estate investment trust has converted the 57,000-square-foot building and parking lot into 171 apartments, a complex known as Alloy Midtown, opening for residents this week at 3010 North 2nd Street, the Phoenix Business Journal reported.

Soltrust, then-known as Blueprint Capital REIT, bought the 1.5-acre property whose offices were occupied by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration at auction in 2020 for $4.3 million, or $75 per square foot.

But the real prize was the expansive parking lot, according to the Business Journal.

After the DEA moved out, Soltrust converted its former offices into apartments. The firm is building a second apartment building atop its blacktop, slated to open for residents in two months, according to Dan Duffus, co-founder and managing principal of Soltrust.

The $60 million complex, which includes studio, one- and two-bedroom units, has an infinity pool, a coworking area, a coffee bar and gym. The larger apartment building will contain a yoga room and zen garden.

Rents range from $1,590 for a studio to $2,385 for a two-bedroom apartment, according to Apartments.com.

The four-story project, drawn up by Synectic Design in Tempe and GGLO in Marina del Rey, Calif., includes the converted trapezoidal complex and a new U-shaped complex.

The converted offices feature a glass facade with zany white graphics and interiors with exposed steel beams, while the new complex is decked in beige and white, with exterior balconies, according to renderings.

Duffus said the conversion project is the largest he has done in three decades of development.

“There hasn’t been a lot of successful [office-to-residential] conversions — it’s a big buzzword in the industry, but not many people have completed them,” Duffus told the Business Journal.

“I also don’t think the City of Phoenix has done very many of them because there was a lot of confusion in infield inspections, where we have an approved detail and the inspectors come through and say, ‘No, you can’t do that,'” he said. “I’m sure as they get more under their belt … that’ll make it a lot easier.”

Soltrust is also building homes near Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing’s site in North Phoenix, and in Casa Grande, Duffus said. The firm is also converting a former senior living home in Mesa into apartments.

Greater Phoenix has 23 conversion projects that developers have either completed or are planning, totaling 3.5 million square feet of offices into other uses, according to CBRE.

— Dana Bartholomew

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