News
Every Day is Cyber Monday
November 26, 2012
| Even once today's big sales are over, a rush is on among investors to find SoCal retail properties. Upside: the employees have 363 days to recover before the next Black Friday. |
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| Mixed-use developers are eying underperforming SoCal retail properties. Lee & Associates principal Mike Abel tells us that a number of mixed-use developers are recognizing better uses for underperforming retail properties. It's not necessarily a total makeover, ratherreshaping these low- to mid-rise developments with a healthy combination of residential space, restaurants, fitness space, and a parking structure (often subterranean), to go with the retail component. |
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| Potential sellers are beginning to notice, too, Mike says. “Mixed-use developers can usually pay more than traditional residential or commercial developers because they understand the concept of building vertically,” he notes. By doing so, these developers are able to combine residential and retail components, which enhances their income pro formas and profit potential. (Pictured: the underutilized 8041 Ellis Ave, Huntington Beach, listed as a mixed-use redevelopment opportunity by Sperry Van Ness.) |
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| Investors are also more eager for traditional opportunities in SoCal retail, Mike adds, and sellers can be persuaded. “I've learned that just about anything is for sale at the right price,” he says. Recently Mike repped the seller in a $16.2M sale of a car dealership on more than six acres at 18255 Beach Blvd in Huntington Beach, a kind of property that rarely trades hands. (Unlike the product that sits on them.) A Ford Motor dealership leases the site, and will continue to do so under the new ownership. |
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| All-cash investors are emerging to acquire retail properties, according to Irvine-based Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors’ Kevin Fryman. Note the recent sale of a 4,000 SF strip center in Torrance, occupied by 7-Eleven and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which traded for $4.6M, or about $1,064 per SF (do the best deals come in small packages?). Kevin and colleague Carlos Lopez repped the seller; Kevin explains there was strong buyer interest because of a confluence of attributes investors want: high visibility, corporate tenants, and a well-built property. |
