The center, located at Hollywood Boulevard and Park Road, is anchored by Publix Supermarket and Target. Target is the center's biggest tenant, occupying well over 100,000 sf.

Ross Matz Investments bought the center Dec. 21, 2001, from Swerdlow Real Estate Group, a real estate investment trust, for $33 million. "So it's a nice profit," Barry Ross, a principal along with Bill Matz in Ross Matz Investments, tells GlobeSt.com.

Ross attributes that to recent improvements at the center. "We did some good things to the center," he says. "We added value to the center with some new leases."

One example is Ross Matz Investments replaced Swerdlow's 26,000-sf headquarters with Memorial Hospital, which leased space for a physical therapy and rehab facility—two services that the Hollywood hospital moved off its campus.

This represented a change from a non-credit tenant with a couple of years left on its lease to a very creditworthy tenant, Ross says. "Their credit is A+, and they gave us a 10-year lease, so it made the center more salable."

Since it bought the center, Ross Matz Investments also replaced HIP of Florida, which occupied 75,000 sf with its parent company, HIP of New York, which took 80,000 sf and "added significant creditworthiness."

Increasing its occupancy to 98% "is another reason we were able to make such a big profit," Ross says. The center was 92% leased when Ross Matz Investments bought it.

The center was originally built as Hollywood Mall more than 40 years ago and was converted to an open-air shopping center by Swerdlow Real Estate Group in the mid-90s. Ross Realty Investments Inc., a full-service real estate brokerage of which Ross is president, brokered the sale of Hollywood Hills Plaza.

Ross Matz Investments also sold an outparcel to the center in March for $437,000, for a total of nearly $40 million in sales. Ken Israel, owner of the Wachovia-anchored office building, purchased the outparcel. The outparcel was a parking lot that was part of Ross Matz Investments' income stream. Ross Matz had leased the parcel to Israel.

Ross says Ross Matz Investments, an active developer and buyer of well-situated neighborhood shopping centers in Florida, is "eager" to re-deploy the funds from this sale to more shopping centers in the state and is also prepared to buy another $150 million in shopping centers in Florida over the next 12 months.

South Florida is the company's preference, he says, but the company also is looking at deals in Orlando and has dealt with properties in various Florida cities.

Instant Insights /

Ross Matz Sells Hollywood Hills Plaza for $40M

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