Deal falls through for Tempe's Centerpoint Tower

The deal to sell the massive Centerpoint, a vacant two-tower project in downtown Tempe, has fallen through and there is little hope anything will be resolved soon. Mark Winkleman, chief operating officer for seller ML Manager LLC blamed the title company, Fidelity National Title Insurance, for the failure. “They led us down the wrong path. So now the lawyers are going to take over,” Winkleman said. The deal to sell the troubled project to Ohio-based Zaremba Group for $30 million officially was called off Nov. 3, about a month after problems surfaced. The closing had been scheduled for Oct. 6, but on Oct. 4 Fidelity informed ML Manager that it would not insure Zaremba against the claims of numerous contractors and subcontractors who had filed more than $21 million in mechanics liens against the project. Fidelity had issued the original title insurance for the project’s construction.

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