Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) announces the $3.4 million sale of a neighborhood shopping center at 500 West Cataline Drive in Yuma, Arizona. NKF Senior Managing Directors Steve Julius and Jesse Goldsmith and Associate Chase Dorsett represented both the seller, Hawkins-Smith & Jason, LLC, and the buyer, Moreno-Third Street, LLC, in the sale of the 35,157-square-foot, two-tenant, net-leased retail center. The property has two corporate, national tenants–Dollar Tree and dd’s Discounts, a subsidiary of Ross Stores, Inc.
“This transaction is an excellent illustration of the types of retail deals that are getting done right now. Transactions with strong fundamentals and seasoned, national tenants with fair rents and long-term leases are doing well. Cooperative buyers and sellers who are patient and motivated as well as borrowers with lender relationships, personal recourse and good liquidity help the transaction move along toward closing,” said NKF’s Julius.
The property is at the corner of 8th Avenue & Catalina, across from the Yuma regional mall and the Big Curve shopping center. Investors are infusing new capital into this intersection, including new national retail next door to Dollar Tree, and a new Dutch Bros Coffee and Chipotle.
According to NKF Research, located at the intersection of the Californian, Arizonan and Mexican borders directly between San Diego and Phoenix, Yuma is a vital economic center driven by agribusiness, major military installations and healthcare. Despite a relatively remote geographic location, the city of Yuma contains 97,801 residents, over 2,400 employers and 67,320 employees with an average household income of $64,048 that is forecasted to increase to $73,677 by 2024.
NKF’s Julius, Goldsmith and Dorsett together have closed 12 transactions since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of those 12 transactions, this was the first where the buyer was able to get a new bank loan; for the other 11, buyers paid cash or utilized seller carry-back financing, according to Julius. “Though lending activity has been largely paused for several months, transactions are moving forward. Lenders are lending, and buyers are closing,” he concluded.
