PASADENA, CA—Two mixed-use retail properties in the South Lake Avenue retail district of Pasadena have traded hands for a total of $20.5 million.

San Diego-based Paragon Real Estate Fund purchased the 20,435-square-foot, ground floor space at Retail @ Pasadena Collection for $10.8 million, the larger of the two transactions. "This is a trophy location with excellent demographics. The intersection of South Lake Avenue and Cordova Street is in the heart of the South Lake Avenue retail and office district, which has extremely low vacancy," says Carlos J. Lopez, Hanley Investment Urban Retail Advisors president, who represented the buyer and seller, a private investor, in this transaction along with his Hanley Investment Urban Retail Advisors colleague senior associate Lee T. Csenar.

The retail space sits below 110 luxury residential units, and the property is located one block from the Corporate Center Pasadena. Several tenants, including Vitamin Shoppe, T-Mobile, Sharky's Woodfired Mexican Grill and several other restaurants currently occupy the property. "This investment offers Paragon an upside potential and an opportunity to obtain market rate lease rates," Lopez says. “100% of the occupied square footage has renewed or extended their leases since 2010, confirming market rents and the demand for retail space at the Pasadena Collection."