GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Inland, Weber Trade $15M Plus for 107,151 SF

corporate-owned boxes. Word on the street is more than $15 million changed hands.The Oak Brook, IL-based Inland's newest purchase, which closed yesterday, is the 95%-leased Mansfield Towne Crossing at the southeast corner of US Highway 287 and Debbie Lane. Regardless of the street talk, Inland isn't piecemeal buying the lion's share of John Weber's retail portfolio on an earn-out basis. The duo struck their first deal in April when the REIT put up $15 million for the 73,480-sf Western Heritage Towne Crossing at 3001 Glade Rd. in Euless and then returned to the table in late June for the $9.8-million purchase of the 41,391-sf Davis Towne Crossing at 8628 Davis Blvd. in North Richland Hills.

"I'm not buying his entire portfolio, but if he wants to bring me a property, he's welcome," Matthew Tice of Inland Real Estate Acquisitions Inc. tells GlobeSt.com. "John, by far, is one of my favorite developers to deal with in Dallas. He builds a quality center."

Weber's team, just as it's doing with Davis Towne Crossing, will continue to lease and manage the Mansfield asset. "It's part of the earn-out," Tice says.

The recently completed Mansfield Towne Crossing is 80% leased to national tenants and the balance is made up of local retailers. Leases are a 50-50% split of five- and 10-year terms. The development contains a 30,000-sf Ross Dress for Less, 20,000-sf Staples and 10,000-sf Pier 1. "It's a very good tenant lineup in a submarket that we think is going to grow," Tice says. "It's a strong center."

Inland, holding true to its style, paid cash, assumed no debt and will place financing down the road. Weber developed the 50-acre project in a JV with Dallas-based Today Realty Advisors.

Inland, one of the nation's most active retail buyers, has bought 60 retail properties in the past year, including 12 in Texas. Just in October, the REIT spent $195 million on more than one million sf nationwide. That shopping spree included the $5-million purchase of a 61,001-sf Academy Sports & Outdoors in Port Arthur near Houston and the $51.2-million takedown of the 272,722-sf Denton Crossing in North Texas, with a $12.8-million contract pending for about 50,000 sf of under-construction space.

The fast-paced closings have the REIT's team lagging in getting out the word. A July 21 sale has just made its way to the street. According to SEC documents, the REIT paid slightly more than $33 million to a local group, Wyndham Properties Ltd., for the 358,195-sf Gateway Plaza Shopping Center in Southlake.