"While most economic analysts have totally missed the dramatic increase in retail tenant activity in the Bay Area over the last six months, savvy retail investors have not," says Dan Wald, SVP of the Investment Services Group of BT Commercial Real Estate and the listing broker for both properties. "They see little new supply being developed and an upward pressure on rents. As a result, there is plenty of capital willing to compete for quality product when it becomes available. There are so many more buyers than properties, that we're going with a date certain bid process."

With an initial asking price of $45 million, the 150,000-sf 555 Ninth Street Retail Center in San Francisco is for sale at an 8.25% cap rate. Currently owned by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. based in Milwaukee, Wis., the property is managed out of the company's San Francisco office.

"This property is much more unique because with a population of more than 750,000 people, San Francisco has only two multi-tenant power centers and this is one of the two. It's a two-story, urban retail property in a town where there's not many of them," Wald said.