Retail Center Sells for $52M

DOWNINGTOWN, PA-Delaware-based Morris Ashbridge Associates, L.P. is purchasing the 49-acre Ashbridge Square retail center here for $52 million from Beverly-Hills, CA-based Pacific Crest Holding LLC. The property at 900 East Lancaster Ave. is 386,016 square feet. Marcus & Millichap’s Kevin Boeve, VP investments, Mark Tayler, first VP investments,  and Dean Zang, a VP investment managed both sides of the deal.

The buyer assumed a $38-million loan and used a 1031 exchange for the deal. “We had a power center, we have good strong tenants who are well-rated, we have a secure income stream, we had a large transaction,” notes Taylor. “But we had a loan that had to be assumed and becausec there was a loan in place, that could not be prepaid or paid off, that took a lot of the institutional buyers out of the market for this property. Because a lot of Real Estate Investment Trusts and pension funds cannot buy with debt in place.” The firm went after private investors, pitching the property on its power-center tenants.