HOLLYWOOD, FL-North Miami Beach-based Equity One paid top dollar, $22 million or just north of $334 per sf, for Young Circle Shopping Center, a 65,834-sf retail property located on about 3.3 acres east of the traffic circle that joins Hollywood Boulevard and US Highway 1. The price is more than double the average price paid for five recent Broward County shopping centers that changed hands during the first quarter of this year, according to a report from the area office of CB Richard Ellis.

"This is as good as you can get in South Florida," Doron Valero, president of Equity One, tells GlobeSt.com. "It's urban. Hundreds, if not thousands of [residential] units are being built there, and there's no land available. This has to be seen more like a New York property where ground is one thing and vertical is another. Then, over $330-per-sf becomes much more desirable."

The property is zoned for additional commercial and residential development, and Valero says the zoning allows for up to 16 stories, "although our plans are far from finalized. We've been in talks with the city about the FAR [floor area ratio], and the city would rather see vertical mixed-use development, but how high it can go is not decided.

"We are not condo developers, but there are plenty of very good ones we might joint venture with or sell the air rights outright," he continues. "What we will do will take between two and four years to determine. Meanwhile, we have high yield today. It's fully occupied with tenants we have very good relationships with, and it's very, very good dirt."

The center was built in 1962 and renovated in 1997. It is currently 100% leased and contains a 23,124-sf Publix supermarket and a 24,318-sf Walgreen's in addition to other retail tenants. Equity One acquired it unencumbered with finds on hand, including an advance from the company's unsecured credit facility.

The seller is a Florida limited partnership, which was represented by Mark Gilbert, Adam Feinstein, Brad Capas and Rosendo Caveiro of Cushman & Wakefield. Equity One was represented in house.

The Equity One portfolio encompasses 189 properties aggregating 19.7 million sf, primarily in high-growth markets in the southern US and metropolitan Boston. Among its assets are 130 grocery-anchored and nine drug-store anchored shopping centers along with six retail development parcels.