“Walgreen’s presents investors with a safe passive investment,” Blanco tells GlobeSt.com. “People are comfortable with the credit nature of Walgreen’s and are parking their money there. Both Walgreen’s buildings we sold had multiple offers.”

Ocala’s retail market is plagued with overbuilding. Vacancy rates are as high as 30% in some retail strip centers. Although Marion County’s population is set to explode to nearly half a million by 2035, short-term growth has dramatically slowed. Slow growth and a glut of space is driving lease rates down.

“There was way too much space brought into the market two years ago,” Cary Anderson, senior leasing agent at Regency-owned Canopy Oak Center in Ocala, tells GlobeSt.com. “We were guilty of that ourselves. We put too much space into our center. Had we built that center today, we’d be 100% leased up. As it sits we are about half leased on our small shop space.”

Canopy Oak Center is anchored by Publix and sits across the street from the just-sold Walgreen’s. Both retailers relocated from weaker centers to new centers. But, as Anderson mentioned, even new centers are struggling to lease space in the overbuilt market. Pro forma rents have dropped from about $25 a square foot to $18 to $20 a square foot over the past two years, Andersen says. But he thinks Ocala’s retail market has finally hit bottom.

Despite the high vacancy rates, Blanco reports an uptick in transactions in Ocala compared to 18 months ago. Well-anchored, well-located properties that are priced to sell are getting the attention of investors.

“Now that the economic principle of price discovery has occurred, sellers and buyers both have something to use as a metric as to where properties should be priced,” Blanco says. “They can compare one property to another. Until now, the seller didn’t have any idea what to sell for and the buyer didn’t know what the properties were worth.”