Retail Bidding War Pushes Price Above $6M Ask

GRANBURY, TX-A Dallas developer has collected $100,000 more than the $6-million ask for a 40,354-sf shopping center in a bidding war among eight would-be buyers who surfaced during a three-week marketing period. Pocketing the win was a Milpitas, CA investment group.

With the highest offer on the table, Dee Avalon Investors LLC took title to Avalon Center at 1030 E. Highway 77 from its developer, Granbury Plaza Ltd. of Dallas. The three-year-old center was 90% leased at sale time, but an oil and gas company put in dibs on 5,000 sf of the available 7,500 sf of second-floor office space shortly after the deal closed, according to the Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Co. brokers who worked the deal.

"It was a pretty smooth escrow," Stephen Maulden in Marcus & Millichap's Dallas office tells GlobeSt.com. "The seller continued to work on some leases." Because the center's just three years old, he says there is no significant rollover until 2008. He says the center's class A retail space was 95% leased at closing while the second-floor office space was 25% filled. Tenants include Omni American Credit Union and CiCi's Pizza.

Brant Smith, a vice president for GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp., arranged a $4.84-million, fixed-rate acquisition loan. "Although we faced some challenges in this transaction, including extensive tenant movement, we delivered what we promised," he says in a press release, "and closed the loan on time under the terms originally agreed upon."

A Walgreens drug store and Chili's Bar & Grill, positioned on the center's two pad sites, weren't part of the trade. "They weren't included, but they are traffic generators," Maulden points out.

Maulden teamed with Howard Fuerst, a senior investment associate in the Dallas office, to steer the sale of the 4.6-acre holding. Gary Griggs with Marcus & Millichap's Ontario, CA office represented the buyer.