WEST ST. PAUL, MINN. — Upland Real Estate Group’s net lease team has negotiated the sale of a Hobby Lobby-occupied property in West St. Paul for $6.3 million. Deborah Vannelli, Keith Sturm and Amanda Leathers of Upland represented the undisclosed seller. The property sold to a California-based buyer. Hobby Lobby’s portfolio consists of 900 stores in 46 states.
NORFOLK, NEB. — Avison Young has brokered the $4.5 million sale of Sunset Plaza Mall in Norfolk, a city in northeast Nebraska. The 232,347-square-foot shopping center is located at 1700 Market Lane. The property was lender-owned and was roughly 48 percent occupied at close of escrow. Built in 1968 and renovated in 1994, the mall sits on 31 acres and features a mix of 30 regional and national tenants, including JC Penney, Bath & Body Works, Famous Footwear and GNC. Chris Maling and David Maling of Avison Young represented the seller, Wells Fargo Bank, in the value-add transaction. The duo also procured the buyer, Tennessee-based LBD Properties LLC.
LOS ANGELES — Ready Capital has closed $23.5 million in refinancing for the renovation and lease-up of a nine-property retail and office portfolio located in the Frogtown, Echo Park and Glassell Park neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The undisclosed sponsor plans to complete capital improvements on each of the nine properties, increasing the rentable square footage and leasing up each asset. Ready Capital closed the non-recourse, interest-only, floating-rate loan, which features a 36-month term, two extension options, flexible prepayment and facilities to provide funding for capital expenditures, tenant leasing costs and interest and carry shortfalls.
MIDVALE, UTAH — Faris Lee Investments has arranged the sale of Garden Square, a neighborhood shopping center in Midvale. The asset traded hands for $8.6 million. The names of the buyer and seller were not released. Garden Square features a combination of low-rent-paying local and regional tenants, allowing for an acquisition well below replacement cost, high in-place yield and strong upside potential in a market with excellent economic fundamentals, according to Faris Lee. Nick D’Argenzio, Tom Chichester and Joe Chichester of Faris Lee Investments represented both sides in the transaction.
ATLANTA — Mark Toro, who formerly led North American Properties’ (NAP) Atlanta division, is launching Toro Development Co. This company will be aimed at acquiring outdated sites such as dead malls and transforming them into better mixed-use properties. The firm is not just focused on enclosed malls, but also suburban office parks, shopping centers and industrial sites. John Kelley, Richard Munger and Vicky Boyce are joining Toro’s development team as partners. The trio all played a role in ground-up and redevelopment projects at NAP, including Avalon, Atlantic Station, Colony Square and Edge on the Beltline. Kelley will be in charge of commercial development, while Munger will oversee residential development. Lastly, Boyce, who first started working with Toro in 2001, will serve as chief financial officer for the new company. Toro Development Co.’s investment partners include Four Stones Real Estate, an Andrew Cathy Enterprise that was founded by Cathy in January 2020, and Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds.
FAIRVIEW PARK, OHIO — JLL Capital Markets has brokered the sale of Westgate Shopping Center in the Cleveland suburb of Fairview Park for an undisclosed price. The 474,000-square-foot power center is home to tenants such as Target, Marshalls, EarthFare, Petco, Five Below, Kohl’s, Ulta Beauty and Lowe’s. The property also includes restaurants such as Chick-fil-A, Longhorn Steakhouse, Buffalo Wild Wings, Starbucks and Five Guys. Completed in 1991, the shopping center was most recently renovated in 2014. Clinton Mitchell, Amy Sands, Kirstey Lein and Bill Poffenberger of JLL represented the seller, IRC Retail Centers/DRA Advisors. The R.H. Johnson Co. was the buyer.
MICHIGAN CITY, IND. — Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors has negotiated the sale of Lake Park Plaza in the northwest Indiana town of Michigan City. The sales price was undisclosed, but the listing price was $6.3 million. Anchored by Hobby Lobby, the 114,867-square-foot shopping center is also home to Joann, Citi Trends and a variety of other tenants. Built in 1992, Lake Park Plaza was 91 percent occupied at the time of sale. Eric Wohl and CJ Kiehler of Hanley, in association with Scott Reid & ParaSell Inc., represented the seller, Atlanta-based RCG Ventures. A private investment company located near Miami was the buyer.
TULSA, OKLA. — Stan Johnson Co., a Tulsa-based brokerage firm focused on net-leased assets, has negotiated the $13.7 million sale of a portfolio of 10 restaurant properties totaling 25,643 square feet that are leased to Taco Bueno. The properties are located in various cities in Texas and Oklahoma. Josh Pardue of Stan Johnson Co. represented the seller, New York-based private equity firm U.S. Realty Advisors LLC, in the transaction. The buyer was Dallas-based Centric Capital Partners. The deal traded at a cap rate of 7.22 percent.
LAKELAND AND MELBOURNE, FLA. — SRS Real Estate Partners has arranged the sale of two Crunch Fitness-occupied properties located in the Central Florida cities of Lakeland and Melbourne. The sales totaled $12.1 million. Matthew Mousavi, Patrick Luther and Patrick Nutt of SRS represented the seller, a Florida-based development firm, in the disposition of both properties to two separate buyers. Mousavi and Luther also represented the undisclosed buyers in the transactions, both of which are private investors based in California. The 18,000-square-foot Lakeland property is located at 5218 Florida Ave. S and sold for $5.9 million. Located at 1257 W. New Haven Ave., the 45,487-square-foot Melbourne property sold for just under $6.2 million.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Retail Federation (NRF) reports retail sales rose 0.8 percent in June over the prior month on a seasonally adjusted basis — not including automobile dealers, gas stations and restaurants — and were up 12.1 percent unadjusted year-over-year. The NRF’s June report confirms the organization’s revised predictions made at the beginning of July. NRF revised its retail sales forecast for 2021 retail sales to increase between 10.5 and 13.5 percent over 2020 to a range of $4.44 trillion and $4.56 trillion. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that retail sales have increased year-over-year every month since June 2020, including May, which had a decline of 1.7 percent month-over-month and a growth of 27.6 percent year-over-year. The Washington, D.C.-based trade association also reports that there was a big increase in sales during the yearly Amazon Prime Day promotion on June 21 and 22, but that hot temperatures and tropical storms like Hurricane Elsa may have negatively impacted retail sales. The NRF expects an increase in back to school shopping as children head back to school, some for the first time since before the pandemic. Clothing and accessory stores increased 2.6 percent month-over-month and increased 49.4 percent year-over-year. Also, …