A shopping center across the street from Glendale’s successful outdoor mall Americana at Brand has sold for $50 million in one of Los Angeles County’s largest retail sales this year.
Dallas development and management company Cypress Equities Inc. bought the 154,000-square-foot Glendale Marketplace at 104-24 S. Brand Blvd. in an off-market deal last month from Eagle Glendale Marketplace LP. The seller acquired the property for the same price in 2005, according to CoStar Group Inc.
The two-story, open-air center is nearly fully occupied by HomeGoods, Old Navy and Outback Steakhouse, among others.
The $50 million price tag makes the deal the most expensive retail sale of the year in the Tri-Cities market and places it in the top five in the county, according to CoStar.
Cypress, which has developed and manages a national commercial real estate portfolio of more than 8.5 million square feet, was interested in the property because of its location in the heart of downtown Glendale’s popular shopping district and the potential to increase the value of the complex, according to Wilson Commercial Real Estate’s Geoff Tranchina, who represented both sides in the deal.
The center has a 35,000-square-foot vacancy, formerly a Linens ‘n Things, and Cypress has plans to find an upscale dining or entertainment tenant for the space, said Tranchina.
Cypress also plans to replace some existing tenants with more upscale companies as leases expire in an effort to keep up with the tenant list at the neighboring Americana, which will soon see a new Nordstrom department store and a number of fresh upscale restaurants.
The buyer was also advised by Carlsbad Capital’s Tony Bernheim.
Construction Zone
A developer is betting $33 million that a new industrial business park in the San Gabriel Valley will be just what the market ordered.
Seal Beach development and management company Xebec Realty Partners Inc. is planning a three-building, 330,000-square-foot complex at 1001 N. Todd Ave. in Azusa. It bought the 22-acre site for an undisclosed price in June from Shell Oil Co.
The project, known as the 10th Street Center, will break ground in the fourth quarter and be completed by the end of next year.
Xebec intends to hold and lease the majority of the project, but is open to selling portions of it, according to Randy Kendrick, the company’s founder and chief executive. He said the value of the completed project would be about $125 a square foot.
Asking rental rates will begin at 52 cents a square foot. Peter McWilliams, Paul Sablock and Nicole Page at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. are leading the leasing efforts for 10th Street Center.
The San Gabriel Valley is among the county’s top industrial markets. Its second quarter vacancy rate of 5.1 percent was a full point lower than the year-earlier period, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. Only 322,000 square feet of industrial property are under construction in the area.
Mini Development
A Mini car dealership is coming to Santa Monica.
An affiliate of Toronto’s Quinn Automotive Group bought a half-acre property at 1402 Santa Monica Blvd. for $7 million in an off-market transaction in June from local family investor SBZ Partnership, which had been operating a 76 gas station on the site.
Quinn, which operates BMW and Mini dealerships in Toronto, is planning to build a 34,000-square-foot, two-story dealership exclusively for Minis. It values the completed project at $16 million.
The group recently won a bid to open a Mini franchise in Santa Monica, but found the search for a location to be a challenge, said Joseph Gabbaian, a principal at Avison Young who represented both sides in the deal.
Mini, a division of BMW, requires a distance of at least 10 miles between its dealerships and already has locations in Studio City and the South Bay, limiting the location to the western portion of Santa Monica. Meanwhile, the city of Santa Monica’s planning priorities call for car dealerships on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Quinn is seeking entitlements and hopes to secure approvals next year and open by 2016.
Staff reporter Jacquelyn Ryan can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 228.
