Retail Sale Sets Inland Empire Record, $204 per SF

Ontario Home Center Partners Ltd. of Santa Monica bought the 130,000-sf shopping center at the corner of Milliken Avenue and East Inland Empire Boulevard from Laguna Hills-based Soledad Canyon LLC. Dennis Vaccaro of Faris Lee tells GlobeSt.com that the deal is the first to break the $200 per sf mark in the Inland Empire, where the closest previous sale was $189 per sf in La Quinta. Vaccaro and David Lee, also of the Faris Lee Irvine office, represented both the buyer and Soledad, which developed the center in 2002.

The Ontario Home Center is across the street from the Ontario Mills Mall, the Alexandria, VA-based Mills Corp.'s 1.5-million-sf development at the I-15 and I-10 freeways. The shopping centers, both close to existing and planned housing developments in nearby Rancho Cucamonga, are part of a complex of retail centers that have been built in and around Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga in recent years.

The area has evolved into what Vaccaro describes as "one of the newest retail hubs in the Inland Empire." He says the Ontario Home Center drew interest from a number of prospective buyers because of its location and tenant roster.

Seller Soledad was in a 1031 Exchange with plans to invest the proceeds into other retail properties, according to Richard J. Walter, president of Faris Lee, who says an important part of the brokerage firm's assignment on the deal was to meet deadlines associated with the 1031 Exchange. The center is 100% occupied, with tenants that include Denny's, Hooter's, Levitz, Thomasville and 3 Day Blinds.