CLEVELAND, TN—Cleveland Towne Center has traded hands with a strategic disposition that leaves its new owner with a strong future. Cole Real Estate Investments purchased the 348,599-square-foot retail strip mall in an all-cash transaction. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Atlanta-based Batson-Cook Development Co. and Warren Commercial Real Estate co-developed the asset in 2008. HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Cleveland Towne Center LLC.

Jeremy Hammerton, vice president development, tells GlobeSt.com the JV sold the retail asset for several reasons. One of those reasons, he explains, was that the development loan on the project was approaching maturity.

“We were eager to remove the debt from our balance sheet and deploy tied up equity in future development projects,” Hammerton says. “Secondly, we would have sold the asset much sooner had it not been for the departure of Circuit City, which declared bankruptcy in 2009 and closed all of its stores. Despite that hurdle, we were able to retenant the space at an attractive rate and quickly put the asset in the marketplace for sale to Cole.”

Cleveland Towne Center is located at 4440 Frontage Road adjacent to Interstate 75 approximately 25 miles northeast of Chattanooga. The property is anchored by Target, Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ross Dress For Less, Michaels, Electronic Express and Books-A-Million. It was 91% leased at the time of sale. More than 60 parties who signed CA’s with five submitted offers.

As Hammerton sees it, Cleveland Towne Center resides in a dynamic location given the recent completion of the $1 billion Volkswagen manufacturing plant 17 miles south on I-75, which will create 11,000 new jobs, along with the $1.6 billion Wacker Chemie solar energy plant five miles north that will create 650 new jobs.

“Add to this a new 1 million square foot fulfillment center for Amazon six miles north creating 1,000 new jobs and the $120 million expansion of the existing Whirlpool facility in Cleveland and one can see that Cleveland Towne Center is poised to capture a great deal of retail spending in this region of Tennessee,” Hammerton says. “Not many areas in the southeast can boast those sorts of figures in the current economy.”