Masters bought the 16-year-old, 92%-leased property from Dallas-based GE Capital. A 56,000-sf Publix grocery anchors the 10-tenant center. Average asking rent is $15 per sf to $25 per sf.

John M. Crossman, senior vice president, Trammell Crow Investment Services division, Orlando and C. Whitney Knoll, Crow's director, Investment Services, Atlanta, handled the transaction. Crossman tells GlobeSt.com that the torrid selling pace of grocery-anchored retail centers in 2001 and 2002 is expected to continue in 2003.

"The [shopping center investment] market is very hot," Crossman says. "But when the stock market starts having another long, sustained growth and American businesses start expanding, the competition for capital will increase." He says this factor "will cause cap rates to go up. Having said that, retail will move from white-hot to hot. And hot is not a bad place to be."