Riley tells GlobeSt.com that the center represented a rare opportunity to acquire a fully leased, stable income property along Ventura Boulevard with future upside potential. Properties like the Studio City Place don't trade very often, Riley explains, because the product is very successful, with a very low vacancy rate, and the owners like to keep them for the reliable cash flow.

Riley tells GlobeSt.com that another characteristic that distinguishes the center from other retail properties is that it has "a tremendous amount of on-site parking," both surface and subterranean. If a developer set out to build a center with as much space devoted to parking today, it probably wouldn't pencil out, he says. Most of it was built in 1989, except for an Office Depot, which was built in 1999.

The property, which is anchored by the Office Depot and a Marshalls, attracted a wide array of prospective buyers and generated more than 10 offers. Its upside potential lies in raising rents of tenants that are below market and through property upgrades, Riley says.

The acquisition is the second in the L.A. area in recent weeks for Beverly Hills-based Combined Properties, which represented itself in the deal. In November the company bought the 65,500-sf Brentwood Place shopping center in Brentwood from Los Angeles-based Champion Development for $30.9 million.