- Four Big-Name Chinese Investors in Bidding War for $73M Retail Prize
- Woodlake Crossing in San Antonio, TX Sold in Multi-Million-Dollar Deal
- Weingarten Unloads 2 New Mexico Shopping Centers
- 3 Ryan Grill-Occupied Buildings Go for $4.9M
- Woodbury Lakes Tops Debt-Load List in Minnesota
- Kazakhstan Banks Slow to Lend on New Retail
Liang Xinjun
Leading the bidding pack is Fosun Group, a private equity unit of Shanghai-based Standard Chartered headed by Lian Xinjun, perennially listed on Forbes' List of China's Richest Business People.
Another well-known bidder is Your-Mart Co. Ltd.
Global Mart, founded in 2005 by several Australian investors, is selling its 80 percent stake in Joindoor Hypermarket and 100 percent of Whacko supermarket. Global Mart officials told Reuters they plan to use the sale proceeds to repay most of its $75 million debt load.
Shanghai retail industry watchers says buying Joindoor and Whacko would give investors a quick entrée in central and western China's fast-growing retail market.
The retail markets are growing as the Chinese government pushes domestic consumption to counter a slump in exports and bolster economic growth.
Fosun, China's biggest non-state conglomerate with businesses ranging from steel to real estate and retailing, already owns stakes in retailers Shanghai Yuyuan Tourist Mart Co. Ltd. and Shanghai Friendship Group.
(SAN ANTONIO, TX) -- Merchant developer Inland Real Estate Group of Irvine, CA has sold its newly built, 160,000-square-foot Woodlake Crossing shopping center to David Berndt Interest Ltd. of Irving, TX.
Doug Hazelbaker, a senior managing director in the Dallas, TX office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP, which brokered the multi-million-dollar deal, calls the transaction "very unique."
Hazelbaker says the transaction came "as the property is in its final phase of lease-up." He says the acquisition "involved a new loan with BBVA Compass, which also happened to be the construction lender."
Hazelbaker didn't disclose new loan terms or specify the exact selling price.
(SANTA FE, NM) -- Houston, TX-based Weingarten Realty Investors has sold its 249,671-square-foot DeVargas Center in Santa Fe, NM and its 84,322-square-foot Plaza at Cottonwood power center in Albuquerque, NM. Weingarten didn't disclose the closing prices in the multi-million-dollar deals.
Fidelis Realty Partners Ltd. of Houston bought DeVargas Center. North American Development Group of West Palm Beach, FL purchased the Plaza at Cottonwood.
"DeVargas Center's exceptional location, annual tourist population and affluent trade area provide the foundation for strong tenant performance, resulting in sustained long-term value appreciation," says Doug Hazelbaker of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP which brokered the deal.
In the Plaza at Cottonwood transaction, Hazelbaker says North American closed the deal with "a high-quality team that reacted quickly and performed well."
(WOODBURY, MN) -- The 850,000-square-foot Woodbury Lakes shopping center in the metro Minneapolis market has the unenviable ranking of carrying the most debt of all commercial properties in the Twin Cities area.
Trepp, a New York-based real estate research firm, shows Woodbury Lakes is stuck with a $65 million unpaid loan.
Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors of Hartford, CT, the center's owner, returned the property in September 2009 to a lending entity controlled by LNR Partners Inc. of Miami Beach. LNR claims Cornerstone owed a total $78.5 million on the non-recourse loan, including $65 million in principal.
Public records show Cornerstone bought the center in 2006 for $99 million from the original developer, Opus Northwest based in Minnetonka, MN and Red Development of Kansas City, MO.
NAI Welsh of Minnetonka has been managing Woodbury Lakes since it became the court-appointed receiver.
Trepp's figures for the Twin Cities commercial real estate market show a delinquency rate of 6.27 percent on metro-area CMBS loans as of Dec. 31, 2009, up from 1.02 percent in 2008. The total outstanding debt at the end of 2009 was $352.9 million on 33 properties across the Twin Cities area.
(IRVINE, CA) -- Colliers International vice presidents Maurice Nieman and Ian Schroeder have found buyers for three Ryan's Grill, Buffet & Bakery buildings in North and South Carolina and Pennsylvania.
The combined closing prices totaled $4.9 million. Colliers didn't disclose the individual building prices.
Bean Station, TN-based HMH Holdings LLC and Big South Properties LLC purchased the Gastonia, NC building at 2900 E. Franklin Blvd.
Divinity Investments LLC of Chambersburg, PA bought the building at 1635 Lincoln Way East in Chambersbourg.
Chang Real Estate LLC of Simpsonville, SC purchased the building at 3940 Grandview Drive in Simpsonville, SC.
(ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN) -- Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan with 1.3 million residents, still doesn't have a thriving market of shopping centers, malls and other retail-related properties but that could be changing soon.
"There are a growing number of international retailers who are looking for space at professional modern malls, but the banks are not willing to invest even in the reconstruction of existing malls," according to Nursultan Kassenov, managing director of NAI Aaristan Kazakhstan.
He told Bricks & Mortar, an online publication, "The projects that are still going ahead are working with their own capital or funds from their partners."
Kassenov says Kazakhstan is short of most types of real estate - affordable housing, offices, retail and warehouse space.
He cites Almaty which is "extremely short of quality retail space." Construction of new malls has been slow.
In 2009, Sputnik Mall opened in March. A'port, Central Asia's largest shopping center at 110,000 square meters (1.18 million square feet), opened in September.
A'port was developed by the Kazakh-Hungarian Eurasia Real Estate Development Co. (Eurasia RED). Mega Alma-Ata, the country's second largest mall, has retail space of 80,000 square meters (861,120 square feet).
(1 square meter = 10.7639104 square feet.)
Kassenov says the opening of another mall, Prime Plaza, has been delayed until later this year.
Leave a comment