Houston Firm Readies Repositioning Plan for Retail Buy

SAN ANTONIO-A Houston real estate firm has bought a neighborhood shopping center at a busy retail intersection on the northeast San Antonio submarket.

Victory Development Group LP plans an aggressive push to move the center’s occupancy from 75% to 100%, George Carmichael of the firm tells GlobeSt.com. The first step is to rename it the Northglen Shopping Center from the Nacon Plaza Shopping Center and make cosmetic improvements, such as a new paint job.

Cynthia Ellison and Ernest Brown IV, both of Grubb & Ellis Co.’s San Antonio office, have represented the seller, Lewis Family Properties LLP. The buyer, formally Northglen Ltd., acted on its own behaf.

Victory Development also owns the Crown Meadow shopping center at Culebra and Ingram roads in San Antonio’s northwest submarket. Carmichael says the firm likes San Antonio because it’s a good, steady retail market.

The Northglen center lost its anchor tenant when a Kroger grocery closed in June. A Dollar General store made up part of that loss with a 26,000-sf spot in part of the former Kroger space and two tenants renewed leases. Sandra Palomino, an eye doctor, renewed 2,450 sf and Best Wishes Inc., a Hallmark card store that was an original tenant, renewed 3,970 sf. Other tenants include a Mi Casa furniture store, dentist and pet store. Ellison says 15,000 sf is available.

The center is at the northeast corner of Nacogdoches and O’Connor, which Ellison calls one of the prime retail centers in northeast San Antonio. Also on that corner are two other centers, both about 75,000 sf. The Valencia Shopping Center with a Big Lots store is on the southeast corner; a center anchored by an H-E-B grocery is on the southwest corner; and a new Walgreen’s story is on the northwest corner.