MANASSAS, VA-Black Oak Associates, an Owings Mills, MD-based development and investment group, has closed on its second retail investment in the Mid-Atlantic and has plans for at least one more in 2011. The firm launched its fund with a goal of acquiring at least three value-add or distress retail properties per year in this part of the country for the life of the fund, Black Oak principal Dixon Harvey tells GlobeSt.com. If the rate of acquisitions seems slow that is because the fund has a unique life span of 12 to 15 years and a four-year investment horizon, which allows for a long-term focus, he explains.

The most recent acquisition is a 93,000-square-foot shopping center here for $18.1 million. The newly constructed Hastings Marketplace, located at the intersection of Prince William Parkway and Liberia Avenue, is anchored by a 56,000-square-foot Harris Teeter Food Market and Pharmacy and has a 73% occupancy rate.  At the end of last year Black Oak acquired a 130,000-square-foot South Cumberland Marketplace in Maryland.

It took the company a year-and-a-half to negotiate the deal out of distress, Harvey says. “There was a significant difference between the value of the loan on the property and what we paid for it,” by as much as 50%. Harvey had expected to close a similar transaction in southern New Jersey--part of the fund’s reach--but the deal died in due diligence. “There are plenty of other opportunities out there for us,” he says.