According to Thomas Taranto, director of acquisitions, asset andportfolio management at Intercontinental, the Boston-basedinvestment adviser and real estate operating company chose theshopping center for its combination of "location, captive marketand high barriers to entry." The location provides 1,400 feet offrontage along Muirlands Boulevard and Ridge Route Drive, majorthoroughfares in Lake Forest, and is approximately one mile to thenorth of the Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5), one of the mainfreeways bisecting Orange County.

Lake Forest Village was developed between 1972 and 1977 on asite of approximately 11 acres and was renovated in 1996. Inaddition to the Albertsons, Sav-On and Starbucks, other tenantsinclude local, regional, and national credit tenants such as CVS,AutoZone and Avon. Lake Forest Village is part of a South OrangeCounty retail submarket where vacancy declined slightly to 4.5% inthe third quarter, according to a report from CB Richard Ellis,which noted that vacancy ticked up slightly in some othersubmarkets of the county, where the countywide average retailvacancy stood at 4.8% at the end of the quarter. Average askinglease rates rank as some of the highest in the county at $3.21 persquare foot per month, triple-net.

Intercontinental, which operates a Los Angeles area office inCentury City, acquired the shopping center on behalf of US RealEstate Investment Fund LLC in a transaction that was brokered by CBRichard Ellis. Intercontinental represented itself in thetransaction, with CBRE's Todd Goodman and Preston Fetrow in thecompany's Newport Beach office representing the seller.