By Jack Stubbs
Retail Opportunity Investments Corporation recently added another shopping center to its retail-focused portfolio with their acquisition of the North Lynnwood Shopping Center for $13.25 million, according to public records filed with King County. On October 19th, ROIC, a company that focuses on the acquisition, leasing, repositioning and management of retail properties, purchased the property from Solana-Beach, California-based Gerrity Group, operator and manager of retail properties in the Western U.S.
Located at 17511 Washington State Route 99, the property sits roughly two miles to the northeast of Lynnwood and less than a mile from access to State Route 99.
The two-parcel property is located on a 5.7 acre plot. The first parcel, .41 acres, is tenanted by a QFC Gas Station. The second parcel, comprising 5.29 acres, is currently occupied by multiple tenants, including QFC Grocery Store, Bartell Pharmacy, Starbucks and JP Morgan Chase Bank. The property is an an established, single-level, open-air, grocery-anchored, neighborhood shopping center located in a high-income, densely populated, infill residential community with high barriers to entry,” according to the property listing on Gerrity Group’s website. The nearly 6-acre property is comprised of 63,646 square feet of gross leasable area. The North Lynnwood Shopping Center was initially completed in 1963.
Retail Opportunity Investments Corporation operates an array of necessity-based retail properties in their portfolio with a focus on well-located community and neighborhood shopping centers that are anchored by national or regional supermarkets and drugstores, according to the company’s website. Currently, the company owns and operates 86 shopping centers that encompass roughly 9.9 million square feet. The company seeks to acquire and reposition existing shopping centers located in the core markets in the Western U.S., namely throughout California, Washington and Oregon.
Gerrity Group, founded in 2005, acquires, leases and manages neighborhood and community retail real estate in partnership with institutional investors, according to its website. Between 2006 and 2009, Gerrity Group operated in Asia and opened offices in Shanghai, Shenzen, Hong Kong and Bangalore and developed 4 million square feet of urban shopping centers in China anchored by Walmart. Today, the company is focused again on necessity retail in the western United States.
In partnership with institutional investors, Gerrity owns 3.2 million square feet, according to its website. Some of the company’s other property’s anchored by shopping centers in Washington include Redondo Square in Des Moines, a 13.76 acre property; Wilderness Village, an 80,052 square foot asset in Maple Valley; and Lake Stevens Marketplace, a 96,341 square foot located North of Seattle in Lake Stevens.
