A sublease expiration to Big Lots had stymied previous efforts to sell the retail center, which carried a $3.45 million asking price. The Grubb & Ellis Co. team in San Antonio of Ernest L. Brown IV, an investment sales vice president, and Cynthia Ellison, senior vice president of retail services, now have a buyer in place after leasing 25,714 sf of the 42,130-sf anchor spot to The Dollar Store. The purchase contract, Brown tells GlobeSt.com, "is for a whole lot more than the $2 million offers we were getting without that tenant."

For well over a decade, Big Lots had occupied the former Kroger site in Nacon Plaza. But the acquisition of MacFrugal's in early 2000 had left the discount retailer with two locations across the street from each other at the intersection of Nagadoches and O'Connor roads. Big Lots had closed its Nacon Plaza store earlier this year, just months before the May expiration of Kroger's anchor lease.

The Dollar Store will be up and running by Sept. 1. Brown says the new tenant signing, which has pushed occupancy to 79%, has been critical to the property sale for the family trust owner. The identities of the would-be purchaser and owner are being kept under wraps until the closing, which Brown predicts will take place in mid to late August.

For Brown and Ellison, this is the second Kroger-anchored property this year that they have sold. Marbach Plaza, had ended up with three tenants in place in the retail space before the local investor would sign on the dotted line, says Brown.

The Brown and Ellison team also has secured a similar lease-sale pact for a 100,000-sf retail site. Brown is mum about that particular lease-sale project, except to say that talks are under way with tenant prospects. "My investment expertise and Cynthia's leasing expertise mesh very well," he says, and enables them to "tailor the center to ultimately create the best value.