Local investor buys Huntington Beach retail

A local investor has bought a shopping center in Huntington Beach for $25.3 million.

TN Investments, run by Thomas Thongvan Nguyen, bought the six-acre shopping center through a limited partnership called GWBC, property records show. JLL brokered and announced the deal last week, but did not name the seller or the buyer.

At around $399 per square foot, the deal came in higher than a number of neighborhood retail deals last year. Some of the most expensive deals last year were about $130 to $140 a foot.

The deal signals “robust interest in value-add retail/repositioning sites, especially in dense, infill trade areas in Southern California,” JLL’s Gleb Lvovich said in a statement.

Few retail properties in Orange County have sold in recent months, as the pandemic chilled the sector. Centers that have sold are often anchored to grocery stores. In January, Brixmor Property Group purchased a shopping center anchored by a Ralphs in Brea for $85.7 million — around $470 per square foot.

An entity linked Merlone Geier Partners sold the property in Huntington Beach. Run by Peter Merlone and Bradley Geier, the firm owns a number of commercial properties across the West Coast and is currently redeveloping a mixed-use property with a four-story office building and 642 residential units in North Hollywood.

The shopping center, located at 15031 Goldenwest Street, is leased to restaurants, a mattress store and a motorcycle shop. Almost all of the leases at the property will expire in the next two years, giving TN Investments the option to redevelop the property, according to JLL.

“The property is a blank canvas for a multitude of uses,” Lvovich said.

The complex is zoned for general commercial uses, meaning it can be used for retail, office, entertainment complexes, among other purposes. The new owner could obtain more permits to redevelop the property into a car wash or auto dealership, hospital or other educational facility.