Carvana signs sublease for most of University of Phoenix’s Riverpoint campus
E-commerce giant Carvana has been growing rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic and it recently signed a 267,962-square-foot sublease in Phoenix to house its burgeoning staff.
Carvana (NYSE: CVNA), the Tempe-based car seller, has agreed to sublease a significant portion of the University of Phoenix’s buildings at the Riverpoint campus at 4025 S. Riverpoint Parkway in Phoenix, according to the university.
All told, the total sublease is for about 267,962 square feet, but UOPX will maintain about 70,000 square feet for its staff on the sixth floor of the building at 4035 S. Riverpoint Parkway.
“We are ever expanding and looking for real estate throughout the Valley for seats in our growing family of employees,” Carvana’s vice president of real estate and design Bret Sassenberg told the Business Journal. “As a company that’s expanding as quickly as we are I am no longer in the market for 20,000 feet; I’m looking for big spaces for quick expansion.”
Sassenberg said the company could not share externally exactly which business unit would be housed in the space yet, but he said Carvana generally does not have a hierarchy that restrict teams to certain types of real estate.
The University of Phoenix decided to vacate this space last year in order to reduce its physical footprint and make a more permanent transition to remote working and course instruction. The university said just 4% of students enrolled in the Valley need a physical space for their enrolled program.
Andrea Smiley, University of Phoenix’s vice president of public relations, said the university will maintain space in the building for in-person practicums and other activities that require a physical presence.
“We’ve learned over the past two years that we can successfully maintain productivity and service levels while remote, and create greater work/life balance for our workforce,” she said in a statement. “Therefore, with this reduced need for a physical footprint, we are pleased to sublease a portion of Riverpoint to Carvana.”
Sassenberg said the new Riverpoint space is a big building, but not the biggest in the company’s portfolio; Carvana also occupies two buildings at Marina Heights in Tempe and last year the company submitted plans to the city of Tempe that would see its HQ footprint swell to nearly 650,000 square feet.
Related to the car seller’s growth spurt, Carvana, announced Thursday that it has signed an agreement to purchase auto auctioneer Adesa from Indiana-based KAR Auction Services (NYSE: KAR) for $2.2 billion in cash.