MESA, AZ-A brand-new, grocery-anchored center has traded hands in an off-market transaction for $16.5 million. The 80,247-sf Augusta Ranch Marketplace was 97.5% leased at sale time.

A limited liability company, led by Paulsen Properties of Bellingham, WA, acquired the two-month-old shopping center from Phoenix-based developer A&C Properties Inc. Augusta Ranch Marketplace, located at the southwest corner of Baseline and Crimson roads, traded with a one-acre, fully improved out-parcel, says Alfred Hackbarth, an investment broker with Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Co.'s Phoenix office.

Hackbarth tells GlobeSt.com that Paulsen Properties was aggressively searching for a grocery-anchored retail property to satisfy 1031 exchange requirements. He had a relationship with A&C Properties and knew several parties had made unsolicited offers for Augusta Ranch Marketplace. So, Paulsen Properties, which recently sold an office building and another shopping center, jumped in with an offer, he says.

"I know there were some bigger players that were involved," Hackbarth says. "It's hard to find a new grocery-anchored center." He says the property traded at a 6.9% cap rate, but he adds he could sell it again for 40 basis points lower.

Hackbarth says Augusta Ranch Marketplace is 97.5% occupied. It is anchored by a 54,409-sf Basha's, which is tied to a 20-year lease. Other tenants include an Allstate Insurance Co. office, Tropical Smoothie and Great Clips. Most of the tenants are committed to five-year pacts, he says. The center's quoted rate is $24 per sf.

"The center is in east Mesa, pretty far out there past the Loop 202," says Hackbarth, who teamed with Marcus & Millichap's Jamie Medress and Steven Gonzalez to negotiate the acquisition. "It's a growing area with a lot of new rooftops and plenty more coming." The closest grocery-anchored competitor, he says, is just two miles away.