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- January 17, 2013
- Deals, Our People
Anjali Fluker, Senior Staff Writer-Orlando Business Journal
Three-year-old shopping center in the uber popular area near The Mall at Millenia sold to a New Jersey firm last month for $34.5 million.
Morris Millenia Associates LLC, an entity related to Rutherford, N.J.-based real estate firm The Morris Cos., bought Millenia Crossing — the 101,000-square-foot retail center that sits right in front of Ikea — in two separate transactions in early December.
Morris Millenia Associates bought the 83,050-square-foot portion of the center that includes Nordstrom Rack from Madison, Wisc.-based developer E.J. Plesko & Associates Inc.’s related Millenia Crossing LLC, Orange County and state records showed. It also bought the 18,080-square-foot piece that includes The Vitamin Shoppe — a portion that E.J. Plesko & Associates had land leased from Cameron Group Associates LLC, an Orlando-based real estate partnership whose managing members include developers John Rife Jr. and Steven Schrimsher.
Anthony Blanco of The Shopping Center Group LLC in Miami marketed the property for about a year on behalf of E.J. Plesko and said the offering drew so much interest from the real estate community, partly because of how successful it was despite being built at a time when the market was declining.
“There was a phenomenal amount of interest in this property … we ended up exceeding pricing expectations,” said Blanco, director of investment sales. “Not many people were thinking of building anything new back [in 2008]. E.J. Plesko felt this asset warranted development and was willing to take great risk to build it at that time.”
Blanco also expects to soon hit the market with another local retail center for a sale: A portion of the Market at Southside shopping center south of downtown Orlando owned by Houston-based Weingarten Realty Investors. It includes an 89,484-square-foot portion of the shopping center that has a Ross Dress For Less, Goodwill Retail Store, Dollar Tree and Panera Bread.
It doesn’t include the 200,000-square-foot portion of Market at Southside owned and being renovated by Orlando-based Pineloch Management Corp. That piece includes a former Albertsons being converted to a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, as well as renovations of an existing Publix, Office Depot and several new tenants were introduced last year.
Blanco said marketing materials are still being prepared. For information, contact him directly.