Phillips Edison sells California center

Phillips Edison & Company, one of the nation’s leading owner-operator of neighborhood centers, has sold Atwater Marketplace in Atwater, Calif. For an undisclosed price to a private investor.

The disposition of the 96,224-sq.-ft center, anchored by Save Mart and CVS, generated a bidding war among nine buyers, according to the Hanley Investment Group, which represented Phillips Edison the transaction.

“The nine qualified offers maximized the sale price [of the] center that was 100% occupied by a mix of essential, daily needs, service and restaurant tenants,” said Kevin Fryman, and executive VP at Hanley.

Atwater is a city of 56,000 residents within a two-hour drive of San Francisco, Monterey, and Napa Valley. Other tenants at Atwater Marketplace include Ace Cash Express, Baskin Robbins, Chase, GameStop, Great Clips, Roundtable Pizza, and Sourdough & Company. 

This is the third institutional quality, grocery-anchored shopping center sale that Hanley has closed in the last 60 days for a total of more than $61 million. The company handled the purchases of Alpharetta Commons, a 94,500-sq.-ft. shopping center anchored by Publix and of Cofer Crossing, a 136,139-sq.-ft. property Kroger and HomeGoods, both in the Atlanta metro.

“Many institutional and private sellers are looking to redeploy their capital into other retail assets as investors evaluate their portfolios and before the potential of higher capital gains could impact future selling decisions,” Fryman said. “Low inventory has put pressure on pricing, which makes this an attractive time for sellers of high-quality retail assets.”