CBRE Brokers $41M LA Retail Center Sale

By Keith Loria

Santa Fe Trail Plaza

TA Realty has acquired Santa Fe Trail Plaza, a 112,335-square-foot community shopping center in El Monte, Calif., from a joint venture between Festival Cos. and Hutensky Capital Partners. Although the price was not disclosed, industry sources listed the purchase price at around $41.4 million.

Completed in 2016, Santa Fe Trail Plaza sits on 9.2 acres at 10601-10761 Valley Blvd. and 10714 King Court in El Monte, less than half an hour east of downtown Los Angeles.

“Opportunities to acquire successful grocery-anchored community centers within the densely-populated Los Angeles County trade area are few and far between in today’s market,” Kirk Brummer, CBRE’s director, national retail partners – West, told Commercial Property Executive. “Santa Fe Trail Plaza offered investors a high-performing grocery-anchor in Superior Grocers, combined with a complementary mix of national credit tenants such as Ross Dress for Less, Petco, Five Below and Starbucks, catering to the surrounding trade area.”

Additionally, the property was newly developed and features a timeless, high image and extremely functional design. That helped bring in multiple offers to purchase the property.

“We received strong interest from both private and institutional investors, which ultimately generated multiple offers from several qualified groups,” Brummer said. “The extreme lack of quality grocery-anchored shopping centers available in Southern California combined with strong institutional investor demand for this product type created an ideal scenario for our client to maximize the value of their project.”

CBRE’s Brummer, Philip Voorhees, Sean Heitzler and the firm’s NRP-West team represented both sides in the transaction. With this deal, CBRE’s NRP-West team surpassed $11 billion in successfully closed retail investment sale transactions.

Land in demand

Santa Fe Trail Plaza

Santa Fe Trail Plaza is situated within an extremely dense, supply-constrained trade area creating high barriers to entry. There is virtually no available land to build a new competing grocery-anchored shopping center in this submarket which ensures the property’s long-term growth and success.

According to Brummer, being that the property is only two years old and nearly fully occupied with new, long-term leases, the new owner is not expected to make any immediate, significant changes.

In October, CBRE’s NRP-West team mediated the highest-priced retail property to trade in Orange County in 2018. Working on behalf of its Smart Markets Fund. Stockbridge acquired Edinger Plaza, a 155,275-square-foot power shopping center in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Images courtesy of CBRE