ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Ariel Property Advisors has arranged a $5.5 million cash-out refinancing for Guadalupe Plaza, a shopping center in Albuquerque. The grocery-anchored plaza features 87,000 square feet of retail space. Matt Swerdlow, Matthew Dzbanek and Rhea Vivek of Ariel Property’s Capital Services Group secured the financing for the borrower, a New Jersey-based investor. The 15-year loan includes one year of interest-only payments and a 30-year amortization schedule at a 75 percent loan-to-value ratio with no prepayment penalty.
GREELEY, COLO. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of a 15-year, absolute triple-net ground lease for a Ent Credit Union-occupied property in Greeley, southeast of Fort Collins. A developer sold the asset to an undisclosed buyer for $2.2 million. Drew Isaac and Ian Hicks of Marcus & Millichap’s Denver office represented the seller in the deal. Located at 10th Street Road, Ent Credit Union is part of a mixed-use development that features a Starbucks Coffee, QuikTrip, 177 single-family homes and 189 apartments.
GLENVIEW, ILL. — PREMIER Design + Build Group has begun work on a retail showroom renovation and expansion project for Abt Electronics in the Chicago suburb of Glenview. Abt is a retailer of electronics, appliances and home goods. The company’s showroom totals 114,000 square feet. PREMIER will expand the second floor of the showroom, adding 41,316 square feet with an elevator and restroom facilities. The property will remain open throughout construction. Cornerstone Architects Ltd. is the project architect. Completion is slated for the third quarter of this year.
— By Anthony Johnson, President, Pegasus Group and Western Regional Director, X Team Retail Advisors; and AJ Johnson, Associate Broker, Pegasus Group — Looking back on the Albuquerque retail market for 2022 and 2023, I have to say that 2022 was the height of our boom in terms of the sale/lease of shopping center and freestanding pad sales, built-to-suit opportunities and redevelopment opportunities. The top consumers of these product types were chicken (QSR), coffee, car washes and cannabis, or as we affectionately called them, the “Four C’s.” Due to the sheer amount of activity in the pad user market, underutilized was a key word during this time. We saw vacant pad sites that were once considered unleasable or unsellable, perking the interest of investors, tenants and developers. By 2022 the negative effects of the pandemic had subsided, which resulted in the most robust year we’ve ever seen in terms of pad sales/leases. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like a crescendo… and then, the “music” stopped. It was February of 2023 when the music started to get fainter. By August 2023, the music stopped, and now we’re seeing the aftermath of this. Meaning, many of the pad sites …
LONGBOAT KEY, FLA. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the $7.5 million sale of Centre Shops, an oceanfront retail center located at 5370 Gulf of Mexico Drive in Longboat Key, a barrier island near Sarasota, Fla. Situated on a 4.7-acre site in Manatee County, the five-building property features 37,880 square feet of retail space that was 95 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including Lazy Lobster Restaurant, Longboat Key Flower Shop, Pilates Longboat Key, La Norma Italian, Blue Dolphin Café, The UPS Store and Longboat Resort Wear. Nearly two-thirds of the tenant roster has operated at the retail center for seven years or longer. James Medefind of Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office represented the Florida-based seller in the transaction. Jeff Enck of SRS Real Estate Partners represented the undisclosed buyer. Centre Shops has recently undergone improvements including new roofing and exterior lighting and a revamped parking lot.
MERRIMACK, N.H. — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, has arranged the $16.6 million sale of Merrimack Village Center, an 82,292-square-foot shopping center located near the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. Built on 10 acres in 2006, the center was 99 percent leased at the time of sale, with grocer Shaw’s serving as the anchor tenant. Other users include Dental Designs of New England, KT Cleaners, Supercuts and Subway. Jim Koury led the IPA team that represented the buyer and seller, both of which were limited liability companies, in the transaction.
DIAMOND BAR, CALIF. — Anchor Point Capital has arranged the sale of Plaza Diamond Bar, a two-building office and retail property in Diamond Bar, approximately 30 miles east of Los Angeles. Two separate buyers, both private investors, acquired the assets for a combined total of $12.2 million. The seller of both assets was a partnership led by Metro Properties LLC. The office building, located at 2040 S. Brea Canyon Road, sold as an all-cash deal, and the retail building, at 2020 S. Brea Canyon Road, sold with a creative seller financing structured by Anchor Point Capital. Built in 2007, the two-story, 25,000-square-foot office building was 40 percent occupied by a variety of medical and related tenants. Built in 1980 and renovated in 1992, the single-story, 8,000-square-foot, multi-tenant retail building was 50 percent leased at the time of sale. Eric Vu of Newport Beach-based Anchor Point Capital handled the transactions.
LOS ANGELES — Kennedy Wilson Brokerage, a division of Kennedy-Wilson Properties, has arranged the sale of two retail properties on the northwest and northeast corners of Melrose and Edinburgh avenues in Los Angeles. Quiet Lion LP sold the two assets, which represent three buildings on two parcels, in two separate transactions totaling $6.8 million. Oh Polly, a fashion brand, acquired a vacant, 3,355-square-foot, single-tenant building at 8001 Melrose Ave. with plans to occupy the asset. A local investor acquired the 2,442-square-foot asset at 7975-7977 Melrose Ave., which also included a 625-square-foot building at 710 N. Edinburgh Ave., with plans to operate the properties as a leased investment. MOSCOT and Vettese Studios, a clothier, occupies the property at 7975-7977 Melrose Ave., and Community Goods, a neighborhood coffee shop, occupies the building at 710 N. Edinburgh Ave. Ed Sachse, Jaysen Chiaramonte and Jack Nathan of Kennedy Wilson Brokerage represented the seller in both transactions.
GRIMES, IOWA — Upland Real Estate Group has brokered the $1.8 million sale of an Arby’s-occupied property in Grimes, a northwest suburb of Des Moines. Arby’s has a 20-year triple net lease with 5 percent rent increases every five years. The tenant on the lease, DRM Inc., is one of the largest Arby’s franchisees and operates 109 Arby’s restaurants in seven Midwest states. Deborah Vanelli, Keith Sturm and Amanda Leathers of Upland represented the undisclosed seller.
PHILADELPHIA — Dave’s Hot Chicken will open three restaurants at properties owned by Federal Realty Investment Trust in the Philadelphia metro area. Scheduled to open this month, the first store will span 2,995 square feet at Northeast Shopping Center in Philadelphia. Dave’s will also open restaurants at Ellisburg Shopping Center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and Willow Grove Shopping Center in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, in the spring and fall of this year. Those stores will span 3,086 and 2,825 square feet, respectively.