MIAMI-With massive amounts of retail coming online in Miami, some investors are placing their bets a little further north. A Canadian investor is one of them.
Franklin Street just completed the sale of two open-air retail centers in Fort Lauderdale for a combined price of just under $12.4 million. Franklin Street’s Greg Matus, regional managing partner, and Peter Crane, an investment associate at the firm, represented both parties in each separate transaction.
“Multi-tenant, unanchored retail centers are in high demand right now from investors,” Matus tells GlobeSt.com. “The cost of capital is very competitive and retail rents are on the rise in South Florida creating ideal conditions for trading activity.”
The seller was Gerig Group LLC, a private investor based in Florida. Gerig sold a 25,678-square-foot, 19-tenant, unanchored retail center at 4300 North Federal Highway between Oakland Park Boulevard and Commercial Boulevard on the east side of the street.
The buyer, HAZ Real Estate Investment, a private investor from Toronto, paid $6.247 million for the property. The retail asset is 95% leased to mix of long-term tenants. Matus says his team received over 20 offers on the retail asset.
The second transaction involved a 12,300-square-foot, unanchored retail center at 2121 North Federal Highway that sold for $6.1 million. The property is fully-occupied by a group of regional and national tenants who all have long-term leases in place.
The sellers, 2121 Investments LLC, built the retail center in 2013 on land owned by a third party. The buyer, Boston Trader 2121, LLC purchased the building as part of a 1031 exchange. Two other brokerage firms had previously attempted to market the property prior to Franklin Street getting the listing and closing the transaction.
“If any owners are thinking of selling in the near future, they should consider doing it right now to maximize returns, access their equity and avoid any future economic uncertainties,” Matus says. “Buyers can lock in great debt and solidify ownership in an investment that they plan to keep long-term—a strategy that many of today’s active investors are employing.”
