Franklin Street recently 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, Investment Associate, represented both parties in each separate transaction.
The team sold a 25,678 square foot, 19-tenant, unanchored retail center at 4300 North Federal Highway between Oakland Park Blvd. and Commercial Blvd on the east side of the street. The buyer, HAZ Real Estate Investment, LLC, a private investor from Toronto, Canada, paid $6.247 million for the property which was 95 percent leased with a strong mix of long-term tenants at closing. The seller was Gerig Group LLC, a private investor based in Florida.
“The demand for this asset was very high as we had more than 20 offers,” said Matus, who specializes in brokering the sale of unanchored retails centers in South Florida.
The second transaction involved a 12,300 square foot, unanchored retail center at 2121 N. 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.
“There’s significant investor demand for multi-tenant, unanchored retail centers in South Florida,” said Matus. “Rising rents and the low cost of capital are driving the market at the moment. 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. 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.”
