The Wellesley Hills, MA-based Sun Financial got a 95% leased, mall periphery block of class A space with 62 tenants and no immediate roll with anchor leases in a 40-acre development at 1515-1645 Town East Blvd. in Mesquite. The sweet spot is "it's not a classic power center in the sense that it's not a collection of big boxes," Thomas Pedulla, Sun Life's vice president of investments for US real estate, tells GlobeSt.com. "The nice part of the story is it's on the ring road of Town East Mall." The deed changed hands in a 90-day start to finish for an all-cash trade with no debt assumption, he says.

GE Pension Plan, headquartered in Stamford, CT, bought the center in December 1994, about eight years after it came out of the ground. GE brought the asset to market last year, but word on the street is no offer met the seller's expectations despite the hardy appetite for well-positioned retail.

Market East's overseer for the last four years, Grey Stogner of SC Cos. in Dallas, then took the deal to Sun Life. SC Cos.' three-million-sf portfolio in Dallas/Fort Worth includes Sun Life's Tom Thumb-anchored centers in North Richland Hills and Desoto. "I knew Sun Life was looking and we have a relationship with them so I mentioned it to them," he says. "It's been a very solid performer in a very solid submarket."

The purchase does not include the 110,000-sf Target or 75,000-sf Mervyn's. The quoted rent runs from $15 per sf to $20 per sf. SC's David Wideman leases the center, which has tenants occupying spaces from 1,000 sf to 53,000 sf. The Sun Life negotiating team consisted of Deborah Tirone, investment officer, and Pedulla along with Stogner and Staci Bowen, SC's closing coordinator.