The LBJ at Midway Center, also leased to the Room Store and Wickes Furniture, was delivered without ever going on the market. Kevin Chin of Sperry Van Ness in San Francisco was tuned into the Irvine, CA-based firm's Monday morning sales meeting when Sid Peters of the Fort Worth office mentioned the fully leased, 10-acre asset was being put on the market by Savannah Teachers Properties Inc. It didn't take long before the deal was done.

John Hancock Real Estate put up the financing, which fell in the 75% LTV range for Village Builders 98 LP, owner of a freestanding Best Buy in Southern California. The center is located at 4255 LBJ Freeway along the Midway Road frontage lane in the Farmers Branch suburb on the outskirts of Dallas proper.

Another deal driver for the Farmers Branch center is the in-place zoning for office and hotel development on the balance of the interstate-visible tract. But, Chin confides, "any thoughts of expansion is well into the future."

The center was on the market awhile ago at $19 million and then withdrawn. Savannah Teachers Properties acquired the center in 1993 from its developer, but certainly grabbing the "bricks and clicks" retailer from Eden Prairie, MN was a coup for the Midway Road retail corridor and a boon for its return to the "for sale" docket. Best Buy has nine years left on its master lease, Chin tells GlobeSt.com.

It doesn't always take a Best Buy to get the cash register to ring up, but for now it's currying favor with the San Francisco LP that's placed $30 million in an annual capitalization coffer leveraged with a purchasing power of about $100 million, Chin says of his longtime client, who has an affinity for buying and developing retail product. "They think in the retail of electronics that they're the industry leader now," he says.

Instant Insights /

California Investor Snags Best Buy Center for $16.5M Sale

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