MIAMI—In the eleventh hour, just before the bank foreclosed, the owners of Palmetto Gardens Plaza found a new lease on life. Palmetto Design Center reached a mutually agreeable settlement with PNC Bank on the 7.1-acre site at 3799 Northwest 167th Street in Miami Gardens.

But that's not where the story ends. Palmetto also secured a new $4.5 million loan with Hudson Financial Services, which contributed to funding the settlement. Palmetto also signed a lease with Walmart for a Neighborhood Market Store as its anchor tenant.

“Through tough times sometimes arise unique opportunities,” says Alan S. Macken, a principal of Palmetto. “In this case, we found higher and better uses for the property. With a Walmart Neighborhood Market offering groceries and pharmaceuticals, we benefit from their unique business model and do not suffer from the myriad of exclusions that full-scale supercenters often include. As such, we can pursue a larger tenant pool, thereby offering a greater variety retail opportunities to the surrounding area.”