CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA-SCI Real Estate Investments of Los Angeles has acquired three parcels within the Plaza at Puente Hills for $33.2 million, part of $51.2 million in dispositions of properties here and in Orange County by a joint venture of Developers Diversified Realty, Coventry Real Estate Partners and Prudential Real Estate Investors.

Rich Walter of Irvine-based Faris Lee Investments says the three Puente Hills parcels are the first of seven at the Plaza at Puente Hills that will be sold, a "break-up investment strategy to maximize value of the property."The three properties acquired by SCI, a tenant-in-common specialist that acquired the parcels in combination with 16 TIC investors, total 180,303 sf. Located at 18001 to 18268 Gale Ave., they include an Office Depot and a Sam Ash, a Smart & Final and shops next to Home Depot. Walter and Donald MacLellan of Faris Lee Investments represented the sellers, a joint venture of New York-based Coventry, Ohio-based DDR and New Jersey-based Prudential. SCI was represented by Capital Real Estate Advisors. Valued at more than $50 million in its entirety, Plaza at Puente Hills is a 17.7-acre, 477,000-sf shopping center at 17877 to 18271 Gale Ave. off the 60 Freeway, across the street from the Puente Hills Mall. Faris Lee has been marketing a 218,540-sf portion of the retail center, completed in 1988, to provide a wider pool of potential investors, both private and institutional. The strategy was also designed to meet the sellers' time frame and price expectations. Initially Walter and MacLellan marketed the three parcels separately, but SCI was interested in all three. The remaining four parcels, as well as a Preferred Bank parcel next to Home Depot, should be under contract within the next week with closing expected in the next 60 days, MacLellan says. According to Walter, marketing the retail properties presented a number of challenges, including the marketing of non-contiguous land parcels, physical property issues, the creation of separate ownership responsibilities and completing the break-up strategy within a tight seller time frame while meeting the seller's price expectations despite rising interest rates.The Orange County property that DDR disposed of was the 45,600-sf Olympiad Plaza grocery-anchored center in Mission Viejo, which sold for $18 million to a private investor, excluding the square footage of the Albertson's that the sellers did not own.