LAFAYETTE, LA. — Edge Realty Capital Markets has brokered the sale of Parkway Plaza, a 112,108-square-foot shopping center in Lafayette. Brandon Beeson and Kevin Holland of Edge Realty Capital represented the seller, 1996 Parkway Plaza Partnership LLC. TCP Capital Partners LLC acquired the property for an undisclosed price. At the time of sale, the property was 98.3 percent leased to tenants including Citi Trends, Sears Outlet, It’s Fashion Metro, Dollar Tree, Kool Smiles and Rainbow.
As America’s brick-and-mortar retail sector continues to come to grips with the impact of e-commerce on its long-term future, it is worthwhile to track the progress of the growing number of retailers who have chosen to step away from a web-only platform. These retailers are establishing an omni-channel presence by setting up operations in physical stores, and many are showing signs of success. Many such retailers are choosing to set up shop along the streets of New York City, with its massive and steadily growing population and its broad demographic mix. Despite the recent, well-publicized increase in the city’s available inventory of retail space, New York City remains the preferred market to launch a brand with aspirations of building a meaningful national profile. Considering the more-youthful and trendy profile of a large proportion of online shoppers, these “adding-bricks-to-our-clicks” companies are gravitating toward New York City submarkets that deliver this coveted, younger demographic. Moreover, e-commerce players possess a ton of data profiling their customers — including their buying behavior and their browsing interests and habits — and retailers tap this intelligence when making decisions about where to locate stores as well as how they should be merchandised to best cater to …
DENISON, TEXAS — Oklahoma-based HeyDay Entertainment will open a roughly 50,000- square-foot location in the North Texas city of Denison. Situated within the 200,000-square-foot Shops at Gateway Village, the location will offer bowling, laser tag, mini-golf, a ropes course and a full-service bar and grill. The Denison location will be HeyDay’s third overall location and its first in Texas. The property is expected to open in fall 2018.
LOVES PARK AND ROCKFORD, ILL. — Cypress Equities has acquired two properties occupied by Schnucks grocery store in Loves Park and Rockford, both located in northern Illinois. The purchase price was not disclosed. The Loves Park location spans 15 acres at 1810 Harlem Road, while the Rockford location spans 11 acres at 6410 E. State St. This transaction signals the first closing in Cypress’ new triple-net fund, Cypress NNN Fund I LLC. Through this investment fund, Cypress seeks to purchase properties across the United States including triple-net, build-to-suit opportunities and/or sale-leaseback deals. Dan Elliot and Sean Lutz of SRS Real Estate Partners brokered the sale.
OXNARD, CALIF. — CBRE has arranged the sale of Oxnard Vineyards, an outdoor shopping center located at 2580-2698 E. Vineyard Ave. in Oxnard. An undisclosed private investor acquired the property from Loja Real Estate Group for $24.5 million. Vallarta Supermarkets anchors the 102,139-square-foot property, which is situated on 11.5 acres. The grocer occupies 64 percent of the center with more than 10 years of the initial term left on its lease. Orbell Ovaness, Brad Baskin and Artin Sepanian of CBRE represented the seller in the deal.
RIVERSIDE, CALIF. — Faris Lee Investments has brokered the sale of a retail property at 3739-3747 Central Ave. in Riverside. A Los Angeles-based private investor acquired the 5,231-square-foot property from Red Mountain Retail Group for $4 million. The 5,231-square-foot property is leased to three tenants: Jamba Juice, Jimmy John’s Gourmet Subs and Tokyo Joe’s. Donald MacLellan and Joseph Chichester of Faris Lee represented the seller, while NAI Capital represented the buyer in the deal.
LOS ANGELES — Fashion specialty retailer Nordstrom Inc. has launched Nordstrom Local, the company’s latest retail concept where customers can shop and access Nordstrom services in a central location. The new concept will launch in West Hollywood on Oct. 3, the same day as the company’s Westside Pavilion store relocation to Century City. Nordstrom Local will have a 3,000-square-foot footprint, much smaller than an average 140,000-square-foot Nordstrom store. This service-focused concept store has no dedicated inventory. Customers will have access to personal stylists who can transfer merchandise in for customers, as well as services like buying online but picking up in the store, alterations and tailoring, and manicure appointments. Customers will also be able to make returns at Nordstrom Local from Nordstrom stores, Nordstrom.com and Trunk Club. Nordstrom Local will have one styling suite and eight dressing rooms surrounding a central meeting space where customers can sit, enjoy a glass of wine or beer, and chat with personal stylists. Nordstrom operates 356 stores in 40 states. The company also owns Trunk Club, a personalized clothing service.
LOS ANGELES — The Crack Shack, an all-day chicken and egg restaurant, is opening its first Los Angeles location at Westfield Century City. Slated to open in spring 2018, the restaurant is owned by Michael Rosen, chef Richard Blais and chef Jon Sloan. Century City will be the restaurant’s fourth location and will feature outdoor patio dining, picnic-style seating, fire pits and communal-dining fire tables, a bocce ball court and open-air children’s play spaces. The Crack Shack is currently located in San Diego and Encinitas, Calif., with a third location opening in Costa Mesa later this year.
For the past several quarters, the headlines of most CRE publications in Texas and beyond have proclaimed the end of retail as we know it. By now, we’ve all heard the stories and seen the writing on the wall: e-commerce will kill the shopping mall; large anchors that landlords have counted on for decades are shuttering and Amazon will be the end of the retail storefront. It’s a familiar tale as of late. But amid the doom and gloom of store closings, Houston seems to be staying on top of the trends, as its retail market remains healthy and appears to be moving ahead. In fact, despite losing over 70,000 oil-related jobs since 2015, Houston’s retail market remains one of the strongest in the country, posting an average occupancy rate of 95 percent. In addition, employment growth in the retail sector grew 5.1 percent in 2016 amidst the oil bust. Despite these strong retail indicators in Houston, the aforementioned market changes do have an effect on the retail environment. And while retailers themselves need to make the biggest adjustments, developers and landlords are not without their own challenges. Like the rest of the country, Houston retailers must figure out ways …
NEW YORK CITY — SL Green Realty Corp. has partnered with RXR Realty to acquire a 48.7 percent interest in Worldwide Plaza, a Class A mixed-use property in Midtown Manhattan. New York REIT is selling the interest and will continue to own the remaining equity with WWP Sponsor, its existing partner. Slated to close in the fourth quarter, the transaction values the asset at $1.7 billion. Developed in 1989, Worldwide Plaza consists of a 49-story, 1.8 million-square-foot office tower, a 252,000-square-foot retail building with parking garage and a large open-air plaza. Tenants at the office tower include Nomura Holdings, Cravath Swaine and Moore LLP, WebMD, WNet.org, Rubenstein and CBS Broadcasting. The retail building features a five-stage off-Broadway theater, a 475-space parking garage and TMPL, a state-of-the-art fitness gym. At the time of sale, the property was 100 percent leased.
