By Jack Stubbs
On Thursday, December 28th, six parcels in Seattle’s Roosevelt neighborhood—one of which contains the 150,000 square foot Roosevelt Square Shopping Center—sold for $68.2 million, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer of the property was Jacksonville, Florida-based Regency Centers, a national owner, operator and developer of shopping centers. The seller of the property was London, England-based TH Real Estate, a global real estate investment management firm affiliated with Nuveen. The transaction was recorded on January 2nd.
The six-parcel property is located at 1026 NE 64th St.. The first parcel is a two-acre plot that contains the multi-level Roosevelt Square Shopping Center, which houses a variety of retailers including Whole Foods Market, Dania Furniture, Umpqua Bank, Mattress Firm and Bartell Drugs Store.
The Roosevelt Station, a new link light rail station that will open for service in 2021, will be located right across the street from the Whole Foods block along the west side of 12th Ave NE between NE 65th and NE 67th streets.
Anchored by Whole Foods market, the property is currently 100 percent leased and surrounded by powerful demographics in a premier trade area, according to a recent statement made by Regency Centers. Roosevelt Square’s acquisition makes it the 11th addition to Regency’s presence in the market at approximately 1.5 million square feet of community-serving retail. Other properties include Broadway Market, Grand Ridge Plaza, Klahanie Shopping Center, and Sammamish Highlands.
“This is a great asset and fit for our continued expansion in the market,” said Craig Ramey, managing director for Regency Centers in the statement. “This adds to our urban platform that we continue to build with acquisition and development of best-in-class shopping centers. We want this place to continuously be a relevant and experiential draw for the neighboring communities, and the proximity to the University of Washington and active lifestyles will ensure that Roosevelt Square continues to be the favorite place for customers to meet friends, shop and dine.”
The second parcel is an adjacent 0.2-acre parking lot. The third parcel, located at 6304 Roosevelt Way NE, contains a 4,225 square foot Class C retail space, while the fourth parcel contains another 16,320 square foot retail store. The fifth parcel, located at 6322 Roosevelt Way NE, contains a 4,480 square foot structure that is currently home to CityMD Medical Center. The final parcel is associated parking. Most of the buildings were initially developed between 1929 and 1942.
The six-parcel property is approximately a mile south of Seattle’s Greenlake neighborhood, and less than a mile from access to Interstate 5. The property sits roughly a mile from the Ravenna neighborhood and is also just a mile to the north of University of Washington’s central campus.
Founded in 1963, Regency Centers is an operator of shopping centers nationwide. In terms of its acquisition strategy, the company looks for well-positioned community properties or portfolios that are anchored by a dominant grocer tenant, according to its web site. The company currently has developments in California, Florida and Oregon, among other locations. Overall, Regency operates 427 shopping centers that total 59 million square feet of retail space nationwide, according to its web site.
TH Real Estate currently has about $107 billion in assets under management across eighteen countries worldwide as of September 30th, 2017, according to the company’s web site. The company manages a wide-ranging suite of almost 80 funds and mandates that span both debt and equity across diverse geographies, sectors and investment styles, according to its web site.
The firm’s U.S. portfolio includes 351 properties in industrial, mixed-use, multifamily residential, retail and office uses. The company has been investing in real estate since 1934 and out of $107 billion, $73 billion of assets are under management in the United States alone.
TH Real Estate has been active in the Puget Sound commercial real estate market in recent months. On September 22nd, the company sold the 205,000 square foot Lakewood Corporate Center—a Class A industrial distribution warehouse—to Boston, Massachusetts-based TA Realty for $23.9 million.
