A Lancaster shopping center anchored by a Vons grocery store changed hands last month for $21 million, making it one of the largest individual retail property sales last year in the Antelope Valley. The Quartz Hill Towne Center was purchased by Phillips Edison – ARC Shopping Center REIT Inc., a joint venture of Cincinnati real estate investment company Phillips Edison & Co. and New York investment firm American Realty Capital. The shopping center was 98 percent leased at the time of the sale, with 19 tenants including Wells Fargo & Co., Baskin-Robbins and Auto Zone Inc. outlets. It was owned by Wood Investments LLC, a Laguna Beach company that has held the property since 1995. Phillips Edison – ARC is structured as a public non-traded real estate investment trust and owns 23 other properties, mostly anchored by grocery stores, in more than a dozen states. In November, it entered into a $40 million revolving credit facility for further acquisitions. Following the financing agreement, the REIT announced that it was aggressively seeking to acquire additional properties, and has $221 million worth of real estate under contract. In December it purchased three other grocery-anchored centers, including a center in Modesto. Together with the Lancaster purchase, the deals are the REIT’s first acquisitions in California. Marc Navarro, Kyle Miller and William Bauman of the Los Angeles office of Studley Inc. represented the seller. Burbank Acquisition Los Angeles real estate firm Champion Real Estate Cos. has acquired a Burbank apartment building for $15.6 million. The 62-unit building, called Villa 600, was sold by the family of the original builder, August Bacchetta. Constructed in 1973, it features unusual details, including a penthouse owner unit with a private pool. “This was a rare property, well located a short distance from downtown Burbank,” said Craig Stevens, principal at Lee & Associates, in a statement. “It reflects an era gone by when builders constructed apartment buildings with an owner unit, and this particular owner unit was highly unusual.” Most of the units are two-bedroom, two-bath apartments and the property is not rent controlled. Champion has plans to renovate the property. The company said last year it wants to acquire $500 million of investment properties over five years, with a focus on under-performing multifamily and retail properties that can be redeveloped or renovated. Champion, which has focused much of its development in Hollywood, has done business in Burbank previously. It built the Burbank Collection mixed-use condo project. Champion is currently developing an $80 million, 250-unit residential and retail complex on Highland and Selma avenues inn Hollywood and a $50 million, 220-unit residential-retail project off Hollywood Boulevard behind Musso & Frank Grill. Stevens represented both the buyer and the seller in the deal. Tyler Stevens, Jim Fisher and Mike Smith, also of Lee & Associates, were also involved in the deal. Expansion Franchise Cassidy Turley Inc., which last month hired several brokers as part of a plan to expand into the San Fernando Valley, is adding to its Valley team. Brad Koehler is joining the firm from the downtown Los Angeles office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc., where he was senior director. He will join Cassidy Turley as a vice president and will focus on Valley properties. “Brad is one of the most respected and capable industrial brokers in the Los Angeles region,” said Jonathan Larsen, regional managing principal, in a statement. Koehler has represented Lockheed Martin Corp. in it sale of several properties in the San Fernando Valley; Westlake Village company K-Swiss Inc. in several retail leases; Walt Disney Co. in its acquisition for the site of the new Walt Disney Imagineering campus in Glendale; and AMB in the development and leasing of AMB Airport Business Center in Van Nuys. Cassidy Turley opened its Los Angeles office last spring, recruiting Larsen and several others from Transwestern to head the office. In November, the firm hired four brokers, in a move the company said was intended to increase its Valley presence. Staff reporter Kelly Goff can be reached at (818) 316-3135 or by email at [email protected].
Lower Cost Lancaster Grocery Draws Top Price
