GARLAND, TX-With a top-name East Coast retailer in tow, an Atlanta-based investment group has bought a long-dark Kmart box for redevelopment. The sale signals a fresh start for an intersection plagued by retail losses.

Blue Ridge Capital Investments LLC is underwriting the redevelopment of the 104,315-sf box at 3161 Broadway Blvd. with a long-term lease to Steve & Barry's University Sportswear Inc., Jeff Kittleson, senior vice president for Trammell Crow Co., tells GlobeSt.com. The play is similar to a late October purchase in San Antonio, where the Port Washington, NY-based retailer and Atlanta investor have taken over a 131,000-sf empty Wal-Mart at 910 SE Military Dr. for the Texas push.

Kittleson says the TCC team got the listing about six months ago from the New Hyde Park, NY-based Kimco Realty Corp. after a temporary tenant exited the building. Kmart vacated the box about four years ago. The hand-off to Blue Ridge, though, could be the remedy for an intersection with an empty 75,000-sf Rainbow grocery store, now dark for two years, and a 60,000-sf Albertsons grocery vacated in late spring. "Hopefully Steve & Barry's will turn that around," Kittleson says.

The Central Garland retail space was marketed without an ask, but comparable space is tagged in the low $30 per sf. Dallas County has the 8.8-acre property assessed at $1.9 million. "They were able to make a good economic deal to justify the acquisition," Kittleson says, limiting his comments on pricing due to Texas' non-disclosure status. "They are playing on the density and demographics of Garland." He teamed with TCC senior associate Scott Head and associate Vicki Sawyer to sell the building for the 10-year owner.

Kittleson says Steve & Barry's is planning a major push in Texas. The 130-store chain usually roosts in 50,000 sf to 100,000 sf. It opened its first metroplex location in early summer at Valley View Center along Preston Road in North Dallas and followed with one at Grapevine Mills Mall.

Blue Ridge Capital's Fritz McPhail didn't return a telephone call before GlobeSt.com's deadline, but there could be more than Steve & Barry's on the site if the redevelopment is patterned after San Antonio. In addition to the Military Drive make-over, published reports say the plan is to add new space on an abutting tract in addition to the redevelopment of the ex-Wal-Mart box.