FULLERTON, CA—An institutional-investment manager has sold Amerige Heights Town Center, a 163,514-square-foot, dual-grocery-anchored retail center here, to Shin Yen International Pty. Ltd., for $48.5 million. Over the last 28 years, Shin Yen has evolved from a residential construction and development company based in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, into a global real estate investment organization with shopping-center and office-building portfolios in Taiwan, Australia and the US.

The HFF investment-sales team led by senior managing director Ryan Gallagher and associate director CJ Osbrink exclusively marketed the property on behalf of the seller, and the buyer was represented by Michael Randall, principal at Randall Realty Advisors. The asset was purchased free and clear of existing debt.

The center is situated on 15.2 acres at 1895-1897 W. Malvern Ave. here at the intersection of Malvern Ave. and Starbuck St., less than 3 miles from the I-5 freeway. Completed in 2001, the center is 95% leased to national and regional tenants, including Barnes & Noble, Gold's Gym, Ross Dress for Less, Olympic Golf and T-Mobile. It is shadow-anchored by Target, with a full-service grocery component, and Albertsons, both of which were not included in the sale.

According to Osbrink, “The stabilized profile of the rent roll, affluent demographics and lack of well-positioned retail centers for sale in Orange County helped create a very competitive market for the Amerige Heights Town Center opportunity.”

Osbrink tells GlobeSt.com, “The marketing process for Amerige Heights Town Center was incredibly competitive. The investment market for well-located retail shopping centers is very attractive right now. Investors today are under-allocated in retail and, due to a lack of good product for sale in Southern California, are aggressively pursuing opportunities like Amerige Heights Town Center to satisfy that demand. This imbalance of supply and demand is also having a direct impact on cap-rate compression.”

Shin Yen was founded by Wan-I Huang in 1986. In the last few years, the firm has increased its retail portfolio by acquiring three additional retail projects, and it is actively pursuing additional acquisitions that fit its long-term strategy.

HFF has been active in financing other western projects lately. As GlobeSt.com reported earlier this week, a 21-story, 284-unit, class A apartment building in Portland, OR's Central Eastside district has received $71.75 million in financing for its development. HFF worked on behalf of the borrower, a partnership led by locally based Guardian Real Estate Services and Key Development Corp., to arrange construction financing for the project.