LAKE CITY, FL-An affiliate of Illinois-based Inland Group has acquired Lake City Commons, a 66,510-square foot shopping center in Lake City, for $10.5 million. Inland purchased the property from an affiliate of Atlanta-based South Harbor Development.
CB Richard Ellis’ National Retail Investment Group’s Florida team in Miami, working in collaboration with Cliff Taylor, first vice president of Investment Properties in the Private Client Group at CB Richard Ellis in Jacksonville, represented the seller in the transaction. The property has been on the market since it was developed in 2008.
“The property opened 100 percent leased in 2008 and it was 100 percent leased when we sold it,” Dennis Carson, a senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis’ Miami-Downtown Office, tells GlobeSt.com. “All of the original tenants are still leasing.”
Nestled in a rural market between Jacksonville and Tallahassee, Lake City Commons is located at U.S. Highway 90 & State Road 247. It’s a quasi-transportation hub, the first Florida town travelers meet as they cross the Georgia border on I-75.
Lake City Commons is anchored by a 45,600-sq. ft. Publix grocery store. It’s the only Publix within a 20-mile radius, positioning the property as a key retail destination for shoppers from a wide area.
CB Richard Ellis has been marketing the property since it came online in the middle of 2008. In the face of difficult capital markets, the developer was challenged to find a buyer for the then-unproven center. Carson says investors were also concerned about small local and regional retail tenants surviving the recession. Two years later, Lake City Commons has proven its worth, at least to Inland.
“The property has a good history of retaining tenancy even though we were in a really difficult and weak economy,” Carson says. “I don’t think you could say that for a lot of properties even in bigger better markets.”
James Soble, a commercial real estate attorney at Ruden McClosky in Tampa, called the Lake City Commons project a “good buy.” He expects to see more deals like this in the months ahead.
“What this deal shows is that there are going to be more commercial transactions,” Soble tells GlobeSt.com. “There might not be a lot of new development, but there will be transactions with properties changing hands. There are quite a number of people with cash. They are looking for investments.”
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