San Diego trust buys Anthem Highlands shopping center for $17.5 million

BY HUBBLE SMITH
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Posted: Jan. 4, 2012 | 3:36 p.m

Institutional investors with a high level of sophistication have their eyes on Las Vegas again, a commercial broker said Wednesday.

San Diego-based Excel real estate investment trust purchased Anthem Highlands shopping center for $17.5 million, the trust's first acquisition in Las Vegas Valley.

It was a rare principal-to-principal transaction, not a lender-owned or distressed sale, said Mark Lucescu, president of Lucescu Realty in Newport Beach, Calif. He represented the seller, Regency Centers, a publicly traded real estate investment trust headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla.

The property received 18 offers over the 30-day listing period, further testament that the Las Vegas real estate market is starting to rebound, Lucescu said.

Due to strong investor demand, only seven all-cash buyers who did not require third-party financing to complete the purchase were invited to bid in the second round, he said.

"It's significant just because of the number of people that bid on the property," Lucescu said of the transaction. "These are bona fide people, very sophisticated, well-heeled parties without outside financing. That says something about people's perception of the market. You can't draw a broad circle across the whole market and say it's distressed."

Built in 2009, the 13-acre, 118,000-square-foot neighborhood center at Anthem and Bicentennial parkways is anchored by Albertsons Grocery and CVS Pharmacy. Other tenants include Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Subway.

It's close to Anthem, one of the valley's master-planned communities with 13,000 homes, two golf courses, three parks and seven schools. Median household income within a 3-mile radius of the center is $119,413.

"It's an institutional quality piece of real estate, built by one of the premier real estate companies in the country," Lucescu added. "Regency did a great job lining these tenants up and built a quality center. Excel should continue to do well in its plan for a long-term hold."

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