Los Angeles retail followed two parallel stories in 2024: one of distress and another of success.
A look at L.A. County’s largest investment deals underscores that storyline as markets with strength, such as Beverly Hills, commanded the priciest per-square-foot trades. Neighborhood centers proved popular for their pragmatism among the investor set. Meanwhile, retail in tough markets where tenants have left, such as the top deal seen on the Third Street Promenade, highlight retail’s challenges.
What follows is a list of Los Angeles County’s 10 largest retail sales based on The Real Deal R analysis of quarterly reports from Kidder Mathews, Newmark and CBRE. The data analyzed was through the third quarter.
1. Third Street Promenade | Unknown | $103 million
Federal Realty Investment Trust’s sale of an eight-building stretch on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade was the final divestment for the Maryland-based company in the shopping district. The 185,000-square-foot trade, penciling out to $557 per square foot, ended more than two decades of ownership on the promenade for Federal Realty.
The deal came on the heels of Federal Realty’s December sale of a 12,300-square-foot storefront for $17.2 million to Pasadena-based Global Mutual Properties, according to property records.
The company’s investment officer Jan Sweetnam said the sale paves the way for other acquisition opportunities.
The REIT represented itself in the Promenade transaction, while Newmark’s Dan Pickart represented the undisclosed buyer.
2. Esplanade Shopping Center | Primestor Development | $90 million
Primestor Development landed a discount when it paid $90 million for an Oxnard power center anchored with a TJ Maxx, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Home Depot.
The purchase price, at $256 per square foot, is 5 percent below what seller DRA Advisors paid for the 357,000-square-foot Ventura County property in 2018.
For Culver City-based Primestor, the deal helped diversify the company’s portfolio to the outskirts of the core Los Angeles market. The Esplanade was 94 percent leased at the time of the sale’s April announcement.
3. The Park at Cross Creek | PacificWest Asset Management | $103 million
The Park at Cross Creek may have come in third on the list of 2024’s priciest deals, but its price per square foot worked out to the second highest in the County for the year.
Newmark’s Bill Bauman and Kyle Miller brokered the $2,033-per-square-foot transaction for sellers the Gerschel family and development firm Soboroff Partners. They also represented the buyer.
Property records show a pair of LLCs bought the Malibu shopping center. Filings with the state show both LLCs share an address with Costa Mesa-based property management company PacificWest Asset Management.
Soboroff Partners’ Steve Soboroff called the deal for the center, with tenants such as Blue Bottle Coffee and Whole Foods, “bittersweet.”
“This was, I feel, my best work and I think that some of my partners feel it was their best work,” Soboroff said at the time of the sale.
4. La Cañada Flintridge Town Center | TRC Retail | $66 million
Newport Beach shopping center owner TRC Retail further stretched its Los Angeles footprint in March when it paid $569 a square foot for the La Cañada Flintridge Town Center.
TRC bought the property from IDS Real Estate Group and a public pension fund, which paid $40.4 million for the shopping center in 2011, according to IDS.
The Target- and Home Goods-anchored center is 115,000 square feet of retail just off the 210 Freeway. It was completed in 2008 just as leasing and dealmaking slowed during the Great Recession. IDS said in response to the challenging operating environment it invested in more courtyards for dining and better signage to woo shoppers to stay a while and, as a result, inked leases with fast casual chains such as Habit Burger Grill.
5. Wilshire Rodeo Plaza Retail | Justin and Tyler Mateen, Poya Abdi | $51 million
Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen’s latest match: retail properties.
Mateen, along with his brother Tyler Mateen and Pouya Abdi, purchased the office and retail center known as Wilshire Rodeo Plaza from seller Nuveen for $211 million. The 300,000-square-foot buy nabbed the trio a spot on this year’s list of top retail sales. The 57,000-square-foot retail component, when separated from the office portion, came out to $891 a square foot, or $51 million.
The property, comprising an entire city block in Beverly Hills’s Golden Triangle, will be renamed One Rodeo.
The Mateens and Abdi financed the purchase with a loan from JP Morgan and were advised by Quantum Capital Partners.
6. Fox Hills Plaza | REDA Residential | $46 million
A neighborhood shopping center, once home to a Marshalls and CVS, is expected to soon give way to apartments.
REDA Residential went in with an undisclosed family office investor to snap up the aged Culver City retail center from Bristol Parkway Investors in April, paying $49 million for the property. That’s a haircut from the $56 million Bristol Parkway paid for the 1970s-built retail center in 2022.
Ally Commercial Real Estate’s Eric Mandell represented the buyer, while CBRE’s Laurie Lustig-Bower brokered on behalf of the seller.
Plans call for the 7-acre site, which sits across from Westfield Culver City, to become an 846-unit apartment complex. REDA Residential, part of Newport Beach-based Real Estate Development Associates, estimates the project named 6201 Residences will be completed by 2030.
7. South Bay Village | Ashley Furniture Industries | $43 million
Ashley Furniture paid $405 a square foot to snap up the South Bay Village in Torrance for one of the first quarter’s largest deals.
The home goods retailer purchased the shopping center with more than 107,000 square feet at 19330 Hawthorne Boulevard from Charing Cross. In 2021, Charing, which invests in properties under $100 million in growth markets, paid Regency Centers nearly $40 million for the property.
Newmark’s Bill Bauman, Kyle Miller and Bryan Norcott brokered the deal on behalf of Ashley Furniture.
8. Westlake Commons | 2 Townsgate | $39 million
Westlake Village neighborhood shopping center Westlake Commons quietly traded hands in the summer for $39 million, or $563 a square foot.
The more than 69,000-square-foot center, located at 2900 Townsgate Road, traded in June with Westlake Owner LLC selling the property, according to Ventura County property records. The LLC shares the same address as New York-based Atlas Capital, state records show.
The buyers are a consortium of LLCs that include 2 Townsgate, Charing Hawthorne, 8 Townsgate and Charing Hawthorne II, according to property records.
Atlas Capital paid $40.5 million for the shopping center — previously named Village Glenn Plaza — in 2016, buying it from Malibu-based Owensmouth in an off-market deal.
Tenant merchandising for the Commons has focused on healthy food, fitness, wellness and the outdoors with businesses such as Zinque, Juice Ranch, Canteen Shoppe and Moody Roster Market and Provisions on the directory.
9. 350 North Beverly Drive | One Cole Group | $39 million
When family office One Cole Group LLC bought 350 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, its acquisition marked L.A. County’s largest retail deal on a price-per-square-foot basis.
The $39.2 million, two-building purchase — dubbed North Beverly Drive Retail Collection — equated to $3,524 per square foot from seller DWS Group and underscored demand for retail digs on Beverly Drive in the tony Golden Triangle of Beverly Hills.
The 11,124 square feet of space at 350-354 and 408-410 North Beverly Drive are leased to Maje, ALC, Taschen, Nespresso and Alice + Olivia.
Newmark’s Jay Luchs called Beverly Drive, between Rodeo and Canon drives, “one of L.A.’s hottest shopping destinations.”
Kevin Shannon, Luchs, Rob Hannan, Ken White, Laura Stumm, Michael Moll and Michael Kolcum of Newmark represented DWS.
10. Envision Toyota of West Covina | Covina-Valley USD | $38 million
Covina-Valley USD’s purchase of 205 North Citrus Avenue for $942 per square foot marked the San Gabriel Valley’s biggest retail deal of 2024 and one of the largest in the second quarter.
The seller was auto dealer Sage Automotive Group.
The property is currently occupied by Envision Toyota of West Covina, which operates dealerships under a number of automotive banners, including Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Ford and Audi. The property’s new owner is a local school district that plans to lease it to the dealerships to provide a steady income.
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