Buyer Shells Out $31M for Shopping Center

SPRINGFIELD, VA-Best Buy Metro Center started 2004 in the hands of a new owner. In a $31 million deal that closed on December 31, property development and investment firm Grosvenor purchased the 105,000-sf shopping center from real estate investment advisor RREEF. The decade-old retail property, which boasts Best Buy and PetSmart as its anchors, marks international firm Grosvenor’s first foray into the Metropolitan Washington, DC retail real estate market. Carrying a 2003 assessed value of $21 million, the property last changed hands in 1998 when RREEF acquired it for $24 million.

Located on Frontier Dr, Best Buy Metro occupies a spot surrounding the Springfield Mall, a 1.7 million-sf regional power center. In addition to its anchors, the strip-mall features the requisite Starbucks coffee shop, as well as a Bertucci’s restaurant and cosmetic store Ulta. “Grosvenor’s acquisition of Best Buy Metro Center represents two facets of our overall North American strategy: to focus on a few select markets including the Washington, DC metropolitan region, and to diversify our portfolio with retail properties in prime in-fill locations,” company senior vice president Andrew Galbraith explains.