100% Retail Center Sells in Orlando

ORLANDO—InvenTrust Properties just snapped up an open-air retail center in Orlando. The company picked up the high-performing Rio Pinar Plaza for $34 million.

Rio Pinar Plaza is a 124,283-square-foot retail center in the densely populated Orlando MSA. Orlando is the third-largest MSA in Florida and the fifth largest in the Southeast.

"Rio Pinar Plaza is strategically located and we believe the combination of destination retailers, service tenants and restaurants at Rio Pinar Plaza and its proximity to the Florida Hospital East Orlando will help drive continuous traffic throughout the center," says Christopher Covey, senior vice president of Transactions at InvenTrust. The company is betting the acquisition will strengthen its portfolio, improve its portfolio population and include demographics that grow net operating income that drives value for shareholders.

Recently renovated, Rio Pinar Plaza has stable legacy tenants with significant operating history. The retail asset is 100% occupied.

"Central Florida is experiencing an average of 90% to 92% occupancy level at grocery—and discount store-anchored shopping centers today, with leasing rates averaging $14 to $16 per square foot—rates that are competitive to nearby markets such as Jacksonville and Tampa," Josh Busby, a vice president at CREC, tells GlobeSt.com. "Throughout the region, we're seeing specialty grocers, like The Fresh Market, really driving up commercial prices as established national tenants are willing to pay higher rents for a location in the most desirable shopping centers with the highest surrounding residential density."

After entering the Space Coast earlier this month with a three-property portfolio of grocery-anchored neighborhood shopping centers, Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT II acquired another Florida retail asset. Phillips snapped up Cocoa Commons is a 90,116 square foot grocery store-anchored shopping center in Cocoa, FL. That's about 45 miles east of Orlando.