PERKASIE, PA-An unidentified New York City-based investor has acquired Perkasie Square Shopping Center on Constitution Avenue for $18 million, which translates to nearly $207 per sf. Acquisition of the 87,000-sf asset also included an adjacent seven-acre parcel along the main thoroughfare that can accommodate an additional 35,000 sf of development.

"This is an area where it's very difficult to cut down a tree, let alone build anything, so the vacant land is very valuable," Lou Ginsberg, managing director of Cohen and Co. Inc. Real Estate, tells GlobeSt.com. Ginsberg represented the seller, which developed the property in 1991 and managed it until the sale, in the negotiations. Helen Putterman, Ginsberg's colleague and president of New York City-based CCIRE, represented the buyer. The identities of both the buyer and seller are undisclosed.

"It was an off-market transaction," Ginsberg says, "and there were three bidders." The center is 100% leased and anchored by a 44,000-sf Landis Supermarket. Among the other tenants are an Eckerd drugstore, Blockbuster and Hair Cuttery. Telford-based Landis is a three-unit premium grocer, "and its reputation in this area was a major factor in the sale and the price."

"This is a stable, beautifully maintained center." The new owner plans to develop the adjacent acreage "as soon as tenants are committed, and several have already shown interest," according to Ginsberg.

The price tag for this Bucks County asset exceeds the median price per sf for multi-tenant retail in the area, according to a first-quarter report from the Philadelphia office of Marcus & Millichap. It says, "the median price rose 16% by year-end 2005 to $122 per sf, primarily as a result of a 20%-gain in the price of strip centers to $120 per sf." Even with the additional 35,000 sf factored in the price for Perkasie Square represents almost $148 per sf, still in excess of the area's median.