A retail center in Chinatown has sold for $29.5 million. The sale was court-ordered.
An unnamed buyer purchased the property from Kevin Singer, partition referee of Receivership Specialists.

Lee & Associates’ Robert Leveen, Jamie Harrison, Mike Smith and Armen Kazaryan represented the seller. The buyer was self-represented.
 
The property, known as Dynasty Shopping Center, is located at 800-812 N. Broadway and 821 N. Spring St. It covers 79,500 square feet and sits on 1.75 acres of land.

The property is zoned for retail and office, and sits in a Transit Oriented Communities Tier 3 redevelopment area, according to Lee & Associates.
 
In TOC zones, developers are able to tap into city incentives to build projects with affordable units near public transit. Incentives can include density bonuses, waived parking requirements and more.
 
The property is also inside the DTLA 2040 Plan, a community plan for downtown.
The center’s sale was prompted by a partition action, which ends real estate co-
ownership disputes.  

Dynasty Shopping Center was initially marketed as a redevelopment project in 2019. Multiple offers were received, but it fell out of escrow due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Lee & Associates.
 
The next round of offers was less than 70% of the price of the first escrow.
 
“Finally this spring, an exchange buyer entered escrow and removed contingencies, thus triggering the court confirmation and overbid process. Our job was to continue to market to interested buyers and encourage them to bid at the overbid hearing. The winning bidder was determined to purchase the property and ultimately bid up the purchase price by $7,000,000 at the hearing,” Leveen said in a statement.

Retail real estate was hit hard during the pandemic as more shoppers turned to ecommerce, and some stores were ordered to close temporarily.
 
Experts agree, though, that retail real estate sales have since picked up, especially during the second quarter.

The gains come in part from attractive lending rates and because companies that put deals on hold are willing to spend again.

There have been some big retail sales nearby as well.
 
This year, Western Avenue Capital purchased a property at the corner of Venice Boulevard and Western Avenue from Decron Properties Corp. for $21 million. The site features four retail buildings.