Red Mountain Buys $58M Circuit City Portfolio

SANTA ANA, CA-Red Mountain Retail Group has closed on the $58-million purchase of a portfolio of seven Circuit City stores in South Carolina and throughout California from MetLife Real Estate Investments, boosting the total of Red Mountain's retail holdings to $500 million. Red Mountain, which closed on the transaction in 45 days, plans to redevelop most of the locations, according to Michael Mugal, founder and president of the company.The stores that changed hands include one at 1950 Bush River Rd. in Columbia, SC and the rest in California. The California stores include properties 2030 Diamond Blvd. in Concord, 7153-7448 Amador Valley Blvd. in Dublin, 1250 Grant Road in Mountain View, 2230 Cleveland Ave. in Santa Rosa, 18020 Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance and 3115 S. Sepulveda Blvd. in West Los Angeles.The stores range in size from 27,700 sf at the West Los Angeles site to 67,680 sf in Dublin. RMRG has no current plans to redevelop the Concord site because Circuit City has not yet identified a new site, but it does have plans for the other California properties, most of which involve either re-tenanting them or converting them to mixed-use residential and retail projects.Red Mountain was established in 1991, beginning with one shopping center in Phoenix, and now owns 78 centers across seven states that comprise more than 2.9 million sf of space. It has acquired 26 of the 78 shopping centers in the past 12 months. Besides its headquarters in Santa Ana, the company also has offices in Phoenix and Clovis.