PORTLAND-Portland-based ScanlanKemperBard Cos. closed on its first Portland purchase late last week, paying $20.76 million for Uptown Shopping Center, a residential and retail development at 23rd and Northwest Burnside that includes a fully leased 72,000 sf shopping center, 47 apartment units and a “potentially developable pad” of about 55,000 sf.

SKB acts as a fiduciary for approximately 225 investors representing more than $115 million in real estate investment. Since 1996, the firm has acquired 35 projects in the Western United States with an aggregate value of approximately $540 million.

Still, in addition to Uptown being the firm's first Portland purchase, it also is only the firm's fifth retail purchase. SKB used Lloyd Minton and Casey Davidson of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler's Portland office to source the loan for the acquisition. The seller of Uptown was Federal Realty Investment Trust of Rockville, Md. Federal Realty purchased the property in 1997 for around $16 million.

Prior to the Uptown acquisition, SKB acquired some human capital from Federal Realty, bringing on board, Jim Kessler, Federal Realty's former chief development officer, to handle acquisition and oversight of all retail properties, a new focus of the firm. Scanlan tells GlobeSt.com that Kessler and more property acquisitions are part of SKB's effort to grow to $1 billion by the end of 2003.

Last week, SKB completed a $21-million joint venture acquisition in Downtown Los Angeles with The Praedium Group, a New York-based investor. The duo acquired the 213,752-sf, 16-story 800 Wilshire Building, a class A executive office building at 800 Wilshire Ave. Sumitomo Life Realty was the seller. The building, built in 1971, was 85% leased.