Sterling Organization Sells Shopping Center Near Orlando to AEW Capital for $72.8M

WINTER PARK, FLA. — Sterling Organization has sold Center of Winter Park in suburban Orlando to AEW Capital Management for $72.8 million. The 244,977-square-foot shopping center is located at the southwest corner of Orlando Avenue and Lee Road in Winter Park, roughly eight miles northeast of Orlando. Sterling’s value-add institutional fund, Sterling Value Add Partners LP, originally acquired the asset in 2013 for $27.7 million and re-tenanted the property after Kmart shuttered its store at the center in 2014. Sterling backfilled the vacant box with a Marshalls/HomeGoods combination store, Ross Dress for Less and DSW. An adjacent Office Depot was downsized to its smaller prototype and Five Below opened in what was Kmart’s garden center. Sterling Organization also upgraded the property’s façades, lighting, parking lot, signage and landscaping. In addition, the firm signed leases with Petco, Zoës Kitchen, Blaze Pizza, Tropical Smoothie Café, Great Clips, MetroPCS and Stretch Zone, and negotiated lease extensions with existing anchors LA Fitness and Michaels. Center of Winter Park was 97 percent occupied at the time of sale. HFF arranged the transaction on behalf of Sterling Organization.