HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — RCP Cos. has opened Phase I of The Shops at Merchants Walk, a 90,000-square-foot retail center in Huntsville. Phase I brings north Alabama its only Whole Foods Market. The 42,000-square-foot store anchors the center, which is roughly 90 percent pre-leased to tenants such as lululemon athletica, Farm Burger, Spa Sydell, Mountain High Outfitters, Maki Fresh, Orangetheory Fitness, Local Taco, The Masters Aveda Salon and DressUp Boutique. The shopping center is situated directly adjacent to the 650,000-square-foot Parkway Place, a regional mall.
Retail
CHICAGO — Novak Construction Co. has broken ground on a new Whole Foods Market in Chicago. The grocery store will be located at the intersection of Ashland, Belmont and Lincoln avenues. The store under construction at 3201 N. Ashland Ave. is replacing the existing Whole Foods Market, which is located at 3300 N. Ashland Ave. The new 70,000-square-foot store will feature a second-story balcony for outdoor dining and additional indoor dining space. Completion of the new Whole Foods Market is slated for spring 2017.
SIMI VALLEY, CALIF. — CBRE Group Inc. has brokered the sale of Woodlands Plaza, a shopping center located at 530-660 E. Los Angeles Ave. in Simi Valley. DP Grand Simi LLC acquired the 61,373-square-foot property for $15.9 million. The center is located on four parcels totaling 6.7 acres and has traffic counts of more than 38,000 vehicles per day. The property is 81 percent occupied to a variety of tenants, including Fantastic Sam’s, Goodwill, H&R Block and Subway. Alex Kozakov, Patrick Wade and Maxx Cohen of CBRE represented the seller, B/C Sinaloa Plaza LLC, in the transaction.
SAN DIEGO — Flocke & Avoyer Commercial Real Estate has brokered the renewal of 3,655 square feet of restaurant space within Campus Plaza. Popeyes is the lessee at 6095 El Cajon Blvd. for $1.2 million for a 10-year term. Bill Thaxton and Stewart Keith of Flocke & Avoyer Commercial Real Estate represented the lessor, while the lessee was self-represented in the transaction.
DEER PARK, TEXAS — Phase I of The Junction at Deer Park, a retail center developed by the Houston office of Cencor Realty Services and located at the northeast quadrant of Spencer Highway and East Boulevard, is now open. The center, designed to incorporate as much as 400,000 square feet of retail space upon completion, is anchored by an 83,000-square-foot H-E-B grocery store. In addition to H-E-B, the center is designed with seven pad sites. A total of 14,600 square feet of in-line space on Spencer Highway adjacent to the H-E-B fuel station is in the planning stages. Cencor is planning the remainder of the center, which will include several big-box tenants. James Namken, Randy Hopper and Kyle Knight with The Weitzman Group are handling leasing at The Junction at Deer Park. The new H-E-B will include a bakery, business center, deli, sushi bar, large produce department and pharmacy. The Junction at Deer Park is Cencor’s second retail project at the intersection of Spencer Highway and East Boulevard. Cencor also developed Deer Park Station, a retail center shadow-anchored by Walmart.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Commercial brokers Steve Fithian and James Blake have merged their Fort Worth Sperry Van Ness offices together into Sperry Van Ness / Trinity Advisors. The merger brings together Fithian’s Sperry Van Ness / Visions Commercial office and Blake’s Sperry Van Ness / Summit Commercial office. The newly merged office, located at 5601 Bridge St., Ste. 504 in Fort Worth, provides commercial real estate brokerage, leasing, consulting and property management on all commercial property types. Fithian has more than 25 years of commercial real estate experience. His specialty primarily has been in multifamily, but has lately also focused on retail and office properties. Fithian also organizes, manages and acts as the general partner in real estate syndications. Blake has more than 30 years of commercial real estate experience. His primary focus is retail and industrial income-producing properties. He also specializes in single-tenant net lease retail and is working to put together a single-tenant net lease team at Sperry Van Ness / Trinity Advisors to represent clients in the purchase and sale of these properties. The company has a total of six advisors and eight employees.
NEW YORK CITY — Silvershore Properties has acquired a mixed-use building located at 1071 Cypress Ave. in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens for $10.6 million. The 33,500-square-foot property features 39 rent-stabilized residential apartments and five mom-and-pop stores, totaling 5,000 square feet. Cypress Realty LCC sold the property, which it originally purchased in 1986. No brokers were involved in the transaction.
ORLANDO, FLA. — Auction.com LLC has arranged the $21.2 million sale of Vista Centre Shoppes, a 98,411-square-foot retail center located at 8462 Palm Parkway in Orlando. The center is situated on a 13.9-acre site located down the street from Disney World. Built in 1989, the shopping center was 89.4 percent leased at the time of sale. A private buyer based in South Florida purchased the property from the Atlanta-based seller. Philip Kates, Adam Sklaver and Dean Lewis of Auction.com worked with Brad Peterson and Whitaker Leonhardt of HFF’s Orlando office to sell the property. Michael Lapointe and Adam Greenberg of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the buyer.
KNOXVILLE, TENN. — Matthews Retail Advisors has brokered the sale of a newly constructed, 119,378-square-foot Walmart in Knoxville. The trophy asset is located across the street from the University of Tennessee campus. The seller, CHM LLC, sold the asset for an undisclosed price in an off-market transaction. Aron Cline of Matthews Retail Advisors sourced the buyer and represented CHM in the transaction.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — KeyBank Real Estate Capital has secured an $11 million non-recourse, CMBS loan for University Center in Jacksonville. The 102,885-square-foot shopping center is fully leased to tenants such as LA Fitness, T.J. Maxx, Beall’s and Dollar Tree. Publix shadow anchors the center. Randy Martin of KeyBank secured the loan on behalf of the borrower.