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LOS ANGELES-Champion Real Estate Co. and Chris Wilson of Wilson Commercial Real Estate have begun a partnership called Champion-Wilson Retail to acquire, develop and renovate retail properties throughout California. A spokesperson for Champion Real Estate tells GlobeSt.com that the focus of the new JV will be the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Ventura and Santa Barbara.
Champion has allocated $50 million of equity to the venture, which could be leveraged up to $200 million in properties over the next three years. Wilson will spearhead the new venture’s efforts while retaining his current role as founder and chairman of Wilson Commercial Real Estate.
“For the past 22 years, Chris has been a leader in the retail brokerage industry on the West Coast,” says Bob Champion, head of Champion Real Estate. “We are confident that now is a great time to take advantage of the recovering retail market and that Chris’s knowledge of the market will provide the venture the opportunity to acquire great opportunities.”
Champion-Wilson Retail will focus on acquiring existing retail projects with value-add opportunity; distressed retail assets and notes; and prime shopping-center and urban retail land. The venture also expects to leverage Champion’s public-private expertise to resurrect retail projects abandoned as a result of the demise of redevelopment agencies in Southern California, on which GlobeSt.com recently reported.
“This is an exciting time in the retail industry, and I am looking forward to working with Bob and his team on this venture, in addition to expanding the capabilities of Wilson Commercial Real Estate,” says Wilson.
As GlobeSt.com reported exclusively in June 2010, Champion was looking to acquire $500 million in retail real estate in the Western US over the following three years. Bob Champion, who had not been buying or building new projects since about 2006, told GlobeSt.com at the time that his company and his financial partners would co-invest in all deals and were already in escrow on a couple of properties. Champion had hired Steve Boss, formerly CEO and founder of Afton Property Investment Corp., as the firm’s new managing director of retail investment and development to spearhead the initiative. In addition, Champion and Wilson worked together recently on another retail project when, in February, Wilson secured a 23,153-square-foot lease with PetSmart for a new store at One Westside Shopping Center here, owned by Champion.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
