Kensington bought the property through Diamond Bar LLC, a joint venture with a private investment fund based in New York City. Patrick Galentine, a Kensington principal, tells GlobeSt.com that the company views the 26-year-old retail center as under-utilized because it is occupied by a number of tenants at below-market rents and has the potentialto attract higher quality tenants with an upgrade.

"This is a property that is at a very well-traveled intersection, but it has just been under-managed and under-leased for a number of years," Galentine says. He explains that the former owners bought the property about a year ago when it was 50% vacant and filled it quickly with a variety of month-to-month tenants and others at low rents.

Kensington is one of a host of buyers looking for value-added plays in retail and other commercial real estate categories, a job that is getting tougher because, as Galentine says, "the value-added deals are getting fewer and farther between." Besides facing competition from other value-added players and opportunity funds, he notes, companies like Kensington face increasing competition from 1031 Exchange buyers who are willing to pay relatively high prices and close quickly to meet their exchange deadlines.

Ed Hanley of Marcus & Millichap in Newport Beach and Matt Hammond of Coreland Cos. in Tustin assisted Kensington with the acquisition, with the seller representing itself.

At close of escrow the property was 97% occupied by numerous local retailers and service providers, as well as East West Bank and Baskin Robbins. The Diamond Bar center consists of 10 buildings, with 88,000 sf of single-story retail space plus a two-story, wood frame and stucco office building accounting for the remainder of the space.

Kensington Real Estate Group has acquired over $150 million of retail, office and multi-tenant industrial property over the past four years. Most recently it acquired Plaza Del Rancho in Valencia.