Tova Capital has bought a 34,500-square-foot shopping center in North Long Beach for $6.2 million.
The Brentwood-based real estate investor acquired the nearly 1-acre site at 205-233 East Anaheim Street, at Locust Avenue, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. The seller in the off-market deal was undisclosed.
The price for the retail complex west of Long Beach Boulevard and north of Downtown came out to $180 per square foot.
The shopping center has two 17,000-square-foot single-story buildings occupied by Trademark Brewing and climbing gym Long Beach Rising, under long-term leases.
It’s across the street from new senior and affordable apartment complexes, and next to a 36-unit townhome development under construction.
Broker Jared Swedelson of NAI Capital represented Tova, while broker Sheva Hosseinzadeh of Coldwell Banker Commercial Blair represented the unidentified seller.
The shopping center lies within the city’s Midtown plan created to encourage housing density along the transit stops on Long Beach Boulevard. The Midtown Specific Plan and Downtown Plan have led to more than 2,100 homes built in the last five years.
Retail rents in Long Beach grew by 2.2 percent in 2022. Downtown Long Beach has been strong, as retail rents are 30.9 percent higher than they were a decade ago, according to Tova Capital Vice President Zach Boren.
Tova Capital plans a long-term hold of the retail center, its first investment in Long Beach.
“This was a tremendous opportunity to acquire a cash-flowing retail asset at a very low basis,” Boren told the Business Journal. “Given the challenging credit markets, we were able to secure attractive seller financing, which allowed the deal to make sense in a market with few transactions occurring.”
Tova Capital, a commercial real estate firm founded in 2017 by Ron Harari, has more than $91 million in acquisitions in the West Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Fernando Valley, Downtown and South Bay markets, according to its website.
— Dana Bartholomew