Lincoln Plaza Shopping Center Sells for $52M

WORCESTER, MA-In what is being touted as the largest transaction of a grocery anchored shopping center in New England history, an Illinois investment group has paid $52 million for the 434,000 sf Lincoln Plaza Shopping Center. The deal also gives the buyer an option to purchase an additional 100,000 sf in the future.

Inland Real Estate Acquisitions beat out about 25 other investors to pick up the fully-leased asset from Worcester Lincoln LLC, which had filled the center with a roster of nationally known, credit worthy tenants in its four years of ownership."There was huge competition," Spaulding & Slye Colliers' senior vice president Jim Koury tells GlobeSt.com. "Supermarket anchored shopping centers are the hottest real estate investment vehicle in the country right now and this one has all the best tenants with new, long-term leases."

Koury, who negotiated the transaction for the buyer and also obtained the tenant, says that while Inland was the high bidder on the property, it was the company's willingness to aggressively negotiate a deal that was advantageous to the buyer that sealed the deal. "They walked the walk," Koury says, noting that Inland, which has bought more than $2 billion in property throughout the country this year, has been making a major push in the New England market.

In the last 12 months, Koury says, the Oak Brook, IL investment group has purchased four shopping centers in New England totaling about 140 million sf. "They aggressively entered the market about two years ago and have been competing for the right type of product throughout the northeast."

As part of the recent transaction, Inland also negotiated an option to purchase an additional 100,000 sf of out-parcel space, which is still being developed, for an undisclosed price in the future. Built between 2001 and 2004 one mile from the junction of Interstate 190 and Interstate 290, Lincoln Plaza is set on 45 acres and counts among its property lease up to that include Stop & Shop, Target, Lowes, Barnes and Noble, Staples, AC Moore and Dick's Sporting Goods, contributed to the large number of investors interested in the asset.