NEWPORT BEACH, CA—With retail property valuesback up to 2006/2007 levels, lenders and owners are more positivethan they were a few years ago, Philip Voorhees,SVP of CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. This bodes wellfor retail investors looking to sell.

As GlobeSt.com reported last week, Voorhees and his teamaided in the sale of Rancho Temecula Town Center,a 165,486-square-foot community shopping center in Temecula, CA,for $60 million to Jones LangLaSalle Income Property Trust, anon-listed, daily valued perpetual-life REIT. The seller wasapartnership between an affiliate of Walton Street CapitalLLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm, andColorado-based Alberta Development Partners.Voorhees says the transaction represented the first sub-6% cap ratefor a large grocery-anchored shopping center inthe Inland Empire since the recession.

“There have been plenty of these sub-6 cap deals in the coastalmarkets, but not yet in the Inland Empire,” says Voorhees. “Thefact that there was a lot of institutionalinterest in the property—75% of the potential buyers wereREITs, pension funds or advisors—sends the messagethat the institutional buyers are back in the Inland Empirenow.”