An entity controlled by Miami based Jewell Capital LLC took a shine to a Denver suburban retail center that sold for under $68 per square foot.
The buyer paid $11 million, or $67.31 per sf, for Willow Creek Shopping Center, a 163,412-sf value-add retail center at the northeast corner of South Quebec Street and County Line Road in Centennial.
There was a high level of interest in the asset across a broad geographic base of value-add investors, including many local groups, for the property originally built in 1984 as a grocery-anchored center, noted Jules Sherwood of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP.
“The buyer saw great long-term potential in this cash-flowing value-add asset,” said Sherwood, who led the HFF investment sales team that marketed the property on behalf of the seller and procured the buyer. “Its irreplaceable location at County Line and Quebec is a great fit for the investor’s long-term strategy.”
The buyer, which owns other assets within Colorado, plans to continue to lease up and manage the property for the long term.
“Due to the strategic location of the 23-acre property, the buyer saw a strong long-term strategic property that was a value-add property today but also one that will have significant upside over their hold period,” added Sherwood, noting the intersection has a traffic count of more than 75,000 vehicles per day and more than 105,000 residents earning an average household income of approximately $127,084 live within 3 miles of the center.
At the time of sale, Willow Creek Shopping Center was 41 percent occupied, however, it was 80 percent leased.
Vasa Fitness is currently renovating and backfilling the entire former Safeway space at the center. The Willow Creek Safeway location was closed in 2015 as part of the grocer’s Denver area store closings. Vasa Fitness is expected to open the facility later this year.
Additional tenants include Willow Creek Wine & Spirit, The UPS Store, Level 4 Yoga, Arc Thrift and Busy Little Hands.
Willow Creek Shopping Center comprises three buildings and four pad sites at 8100, 8150, 8220, 8210, 8220 and 8260 S. Quebec. Two of the pad sites were not included in the sale of the center, which was expanded in 1994 and most recently renovated in 2005.
