Pensus was established in 1983 when the Company was instructed by Talley Industries Real Estate to assemble all the ownership interests of Thomas Mall located at the SW corner of Thomas Road and 44^th Street in Phoenix. Ownership consisted of the fee land, a ground lease (owned by 50 separate entities), and a sub-lease. All interests were negotiated and assembled for a total cost of $15,000,000. The land parcel was 63 acres with a defunct mall of 500,000 square feet. Subsequently the project was purchased by ‘Maule-Ffinch and Shaw Holdings’ in partnership with Gosnell Development Corporation (developer and then owner of the Pointe Resorts).

In the early years, Pensus was also instructed by Ben Burr, the then chairman of Anchor National Life Insurance Company to manage the sale of The Anchor Center on Camelback Road and 20^th Street to Kroh Brothers Real Estate Company of Kansas City, Missouri. The sale was structured in a way that would have resulted in a loss to Anchor, however Pensus renegotiated and restructured the sale resulting in a profit of $20,000,000.

As a result, a partnership called Anchor National Real Estate Group (ANREG) was formed between ‘Maule-Ffinch and Shaw Holdings’ and Anchor National Life Insurance Company.

During the 1980’s, on behalf of ANREG, Pensus assembled, zoned and developed large land parcels with a total value of over $200,000,000 for residential, industrial, office, retail and resort use.

The most notable assembly was the Portales Project, immediately north of Scottsdale Fashion Square. Fifty-eight residential homes were purchased and rezoned for 1.2 million square feet of hotel, office and retail use. With the co-operation of the City of Scottsdale the Goldwater Boulevard loop was relocated through the center of the site.

During the 1980’s Pensus acquired a 24% ownership interest in London-based Capital Radio. In 1987 Capital Radio obtained a public quote on the London Stock Exchange. In 1993 the Pensus ownership block was sold to Information et Publicite a subsidiary of the French media conglomerate Havas. Capital Radio, which was co-founded by David Maule-Ffinch, is the largest commercial radio company in the United Kingdom.

In 1987, Pensus created ‘Shooters World’ which was located on 28^th Avenue just south of Indian School Road. The facility comprised a 24 point shooting range, firearms, fishing and camping goods sales, private club and firearms education. The total facility grew to 40,000 square feet and in 1994 achieved sales of close to $8,000,000, the largest facility of its kind. 

In 1994 ‘Pensus Marina Limited Company’ was licensed by Maricopa Water District to build a new marina on Lake Pleasant.  Since that time Pensus has obtained the entitlements for, and is in the process of developing, the $30 million Roosevelt Lake Marina and Resort on Lake Roosevelt and the $70 million Antelope Point Marina and Resort on Lake Powell.

In 1995 ‘Pensus Park Central LLC’ purchased Park Central Mall for $29,000,000 and has since re-positioned and refurbished the project with an investment of $50,000,000. The project was fully released to 98% occupancy. Future plans are for the development of all the peripheral land with 3 million square feet of commercial retail, residential and hotel.  Park Central is a 39 acre site in the heart of mid town Phoenix with 6 acres fronting Central Avenue.

In 1998 David Maule-Ffinch purchased the interest of Richard Shaw in Pensus and its major projects (more about Pensus Chairman & CEO, David Maule-Ffinch).