Seattle company repurposes former DEA building in midtown Phoenix into multifamily units

Article originally posted on Phoenix Business Journal on June 18, 2024

When Dan Duffus and his team geared up to bid on a parcel of land that was home to an office building that was occupied at the time by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the large parking lot next to the building was the real prize.

Seattle-based Soltrust Residential REIT, then-known as Blueprint Capital REIT, purchased the 1.51-acre lot at 3010 N. 2nd Street through an auction on the online marketplace Ten-X. The group bought the site for more than $4.3 million in July 2020, according to real estate database Vizzda. As the DEA moved out of the 57,000-square-foot office building, rather than wait for a tenant to backfill it, Soltrust held onto the building and and has now repurposed it.

The end result is Alloy Midtown, a two-building project that brings 171 new apartments to market that include studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom options. The first residents are ready to move in later this week in the former DEA building, home to 57 of the 171 total units, while the second newly constructed building is about two months away from being ready for all residents, said Duffus, the co-founder and managing principal of Soltrust.The former office building incorporates a lot of the amenities for Alloy Midtown, including a pool, a coworking space, a coffee bar, a gym and more. Besides holding the bulk of the new residents, features of the new building under construction include a yoga room and a zen garden.