Unanchored Shopping Center Flips for Nearly $5M

DACULA, GA-ANA Associates-IV LLC, based in Atlanta, sold an 11,649-sf shopping center at 3465 Braselton Hwy. for $4.45 million to Miami-based Asmercove LLC. The sale had an estimated cap rate of 6.73%, says David Wishen, with Shane Investment Property Group.

Wishen tells GlobeSt.com that he believes the cap rate and $382 per sf price are records for an unanchored strip center on the fringe of the Atlanta MSA. Wishen represented ANA Associates in the transaction and Elliott Kyle, also with Shane Investment, represented Asmercove.

ANA Associates purchased the property, in 2006, for $3.9 million. “Our client made 40% on their cash in nine months,” Wishen says. Shane, which is a boutique firm, reviewed the property soon after it was purchased by ANA Associates and realized that it had been undervalued. “When you take a focused targeted approach to marketing towards those buyer pools, you are still able to receive these near record prices,” he says. The property has a $3.1-million loan with 5.97% for the first 10 years of the 30-year mortgage. “With the loan that had to be assumed, I think the cash flow for the investor is only about 5%,” Wishen says, adding that the shopping center should be a good long-term investment with increases in the rent.

The shopping center, which is located across from a Home Depot and adjacent to a country club, is 100% occupied. Tenants include Shane’s Rib Shack, Tijuana Flat’s and local businesses such as a nail salon and a cellular phone business. The average lease rates are about $26 per sf, gross, Wishen tells GlobeSt.com. A selling point for the shopping center was the aesthetics of the building with the stack stone exterior, he says. No renovations should be needed for the center which was recently constructed with first occupancies early last year.