(ICSC RECON is coming up and GlobeSt.com has a month of special coverage in the works.  Don’t miss a bit of it.  Click here for more information.)

ENCINO, CA-Those who follow @GlobeStcom on Twitter may have seen a post teasing the announcement a few days ago, but GlobeSt.com has exclusively learned that the $24.93-million sale of four separate net-leased Walgreens drugstores throughout the US has closed. The drugstores are located in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Minnesota and Georgia.

“In step with the economic recovery, national drugstore chains stand as strong passive investment vehicle opportunities which has and continues to outpace investment alternatives in return and reliability,” says Lior Regenstreif, a vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, who arranged the sale. “Not surprisingly, more private buyers and exchange investors are increasing their acquisition efforts in secondary and even tertiary markets.”

He continues to point out that Marcus & Millichap research shows an 18% jump in transaction activity in the last 12 months, “driven primarily by investors fleeing the stock market for the less-risky net-leased drugstores.”

Regenstreif represented the private sellers in three of the transactions. Also providing representation were Spencer Yablon, vice president in Marcus & Millichap’s Philadelphia office; Adam Schlosser, the firm’s broker of record in Minnesota; William Hoffpauir, a senior associate in the Lafayette, LA, office; and John Leonard, a first vice president in the firm’s Atlanta office.

Although Lior could not disclose the specific identity of the buyers, he notes that “two of the buyers were in a 1031-exchange, coming out of management-intensive properties and found triple-net leases to be very attractive and stress free.” Another buyer, he says, “was utilizing this investment to continue his estate building for his children, and the last buyer was a foreign investor who was looking to have a foothold in the US. He utilized this acquisition to establish a presence in the country so that he could do further business here.”

In McMurray, PA, Regenstrief arranged the largest of these sales: an $8.32-million transaction for a Walgreens at 100 E. McMurray Rd. The newly constructed, 14,640 square-foot net-leased asset is located in an affluent region where average household incomes within a mile of the site exceed $146,000 annually. The property is an out pad to Donaldson’s Crossroads, considered the largest power center in the region with nearly 51,000 vehicles per day passing by the area.

The second-largest transaction closed in Willmar, MN.  Regenstreif arranged the sale of a 14,900-square-foot Walgreens drugstore at 301 First St. S. for $6.49 million.

In Ruston, LA., a 14,550-square-foot Walgreens at 108 W. California Ave. traded for $5.77 million. The region has shown significant growth with the influence of local and state initiatives for retailers and developers, according to Marcus & Millichap.

In his final Walgreens sale of the quarter, Regenstreif sold a 15,120-square-foot drugstore located at 1855 Hudson Bridge Rd. in Stockbridge, GA for $4.34 million, an Atlanta suburb. 

Regenstreif predicts that for 2012, “We will continue to see pricing compress, and if interest rates remain low, we anticipate that the investment market will resemble the market of 2006.”