LOS ANGELES—An unnamed private investor has purchased theHawthorne Town Center, a 51,000-squqare-footshopping center, from Primestor Development. Theproperty was marketed to a select group of buyers, and the buyerwas ultimately chosen based on certainty of close to meet theseller's yearend deadline.

The property has an interesting history. It was fully marketearlier in the year as a retail property with a potential padbuilding, but when the City of Hawthorne was delayed in approving theentitlements for the additional building, the sale of the propertyalso stalled and taken off the market. The seller had a need todispose of the asset by the end of the year, so, rather thanbringing the property back to market without entitlements, thesales team took the property to a select group of buyers to ensurecertainty of close. "We decided to take the property to a selectgroup of people that were aware that the land for the pad buildingwas being transferred with the property, but there was noentitlement on it," Dixie Walker, a broker atCushman & Wakefield, tells GlobeSt.com. Walkerrepresented the seller in the transaction.

Taking it to the select group gave the sales team a competitiveedge and ultimately eliminated risk to the seller. "We basicallyprequalified a small group of investors and then brought thoseinvestors to the table. We picked a buyer out of that finite groupthat had prequalified, knew the property and could close," saysWalker. "It was a business plan on our part to pick a handful ofreal players and give them everything they need to know about theproperty. We created a situation where we had hard money in a veryshort amount of time." The property traded hands for $15.5 million,which, according to Walker, was only reflective of available landsince there were no entitlements.