The NoHo Commons retail center, a seminal North Hollywood development, has been acquired by an Orange County investment firm for $43 million, or about $681 a square foot, according to real estate data provider CoStar Group Inc.

JH Real Estate Partners Inc., in Newport Beach, purchased the 65,000-square-foot property at 5300 Lankershim Blvd. from RedRock Noho Retail LLC, a joint venture of Redwood Partners Inc. of Laguna Beach and Rockwood Capital LLC of San Francisco, according to CoStar.

The sale price represents a significant gain for Redrock Noho, which purchased the center in 2007 for $30.5 million, or about $483 a square foot.

The North Hollywood retail complex is 97 percent leased by national tenants, including 24-Hour Fitness, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Panera Bread. It was built by Los Angeles developer J.H. Snyder Co., and opened in 2004 as one of L.A.’s first mixed-use, transit-oriented developments.

It also was an early product of the revitalization of the NoHo Arts District led by the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles, which developed the project in multiple phases with Snyder. The other phases – which include apartments, live/work lofts, an office complex and a multiplex – were not part of the sale.

The sale price likely reflects not only the strong commercial real estate market but rapid strides made in NoHo Arts District, which has become a bustling, walkable, urban core for the San Fernando Valley. It has attracted restaurants, nightclubs, luxury residential developments and several boutique hotels.

Broker Curtis Palmer, of CBRE Group Inc., represented the seller in the transaction. The buyer was represented by Lee & Associates Managing Principal Jim Fisher along with Principal Mike Smith and Associate Cory Stehr.

The acquisition by JH Real Estate follows the sale of its Southern California apartment portfolio in January for $481 million in one of the region’s largest multifamily transactions of the past two decades, according to the Orange County Register.