Centre City Plaza Sale Underscores Strong Retail Property Market

Centre City Plaza Sale Underscores Strong Retail Property Market

REAL ESTATE: Retail Space to Lease Is Hard to Find

BY RAY HUARD

ESCONDIDO– An Escondido shopping center, Centre City Plaza, has been sold for more than $3.9 million in a San Diego County retail real estate market in which retailers are finding it a challenge to find a place to open a business or expand.
There is little or no construction of retail projects and the most desirable locations – so-called A and B centers – are nearly full.
“Retail is coming back in a strong way,” said Nick Totah, senior vice president for investments with The Totah Group of Marcus and Millichap.
“Every property that we bring out, we get multiple offers on,” said Totah, who brokered the Escondido sale with Ross Sanchez, senor investment associate for The Totah Group.
Totah said that Centre City Plaza at 410 West Felicita Ave. was attractive because, “It was in the main retail corridor of Escondido”.
Built in 1979, the 14,260-square-foot shopping center has also had been well maintained and was renovated in 2007 with a new façade and a roof by its owner, Cruz Associates LCC, and was fully leased at the time of the sale.
Cruz Associates sold the shopping center to White Board Poway Associates, LLC.
Craig Killman, managing director of JLL in San Diego, said that retail vacancy is at or below historic lows and rents continue to rise because demand is outstripping supply.
“There are so many people waiting in the wings,” Killman said, adding that once space opens up, it’s quickly absorbed.
That’s particularly true of so-called A and B centers that have strong anchor tenants – typically shopping centers that have been well maintained in higher income neighborhoods with a tenant mix that brings in shoppers three or four times a week like grocery stores and pharmacies.

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