JH Real Estate buys Pico Rivera mall for $37.5M

Newport Beach-based firm JH Real Estate Partners bought Village Walk Center, a 133,000-square-foot mall in Pico Rivera, for $37.5 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The deal for the property, with the addresses of 8500, 8540, 8580 Whittier Boulevard and 5005 Paramount Boulevard, closed on Feb. 10, according to a deed filed in Los Angeles County. More than half of the mall, at around 69,200 square feet, is leased to a 14-screen Cinepolis cinema. The movie theater includes a child-friendly auditorium called Cinepolis Junior, which features playground equipment. Other tenants in the complex include hardware store Harbor Freight and a CVS pharmacy.

The seller is Arizona firm Vestar. The company put the property on the market in November 2023, according to a listing on Crexi. At that time, the complex was 100 percent leased, with smaller tenants such as Raising Cane’s, Chop Teriyaki and Don Chente Bar & Grill.

JH Real Estate, which is privately owned, is focused on investments in retail and multifamily on the West Coast. The firm, which has secured entitlements for 1,500 multifamily units and 200,000-square-foot of retail space, has owned and operated $1.5 billion in assets, according to its website. Other properties in its portfolio include the Redlands Town Center, a 251,600-square-foot mall in Redlands, and Orchard Walk East, a Target-anchored mall in Visalia.

The sale defies the cooling effect in Los Angeles’ retail investment sales market. Total investment sales in the fourth quarter stood at $345.3 million, which is much lower than the total of $527.6 million in the previous quarter, according to a recent CBRE report. The numbers dipped in spite of growth in the leasing market. During the fourth quarter, the total retail square footage absorbed was at 184,000, a big improvement compared to the -841,000 square feet from the previous quarter.

JH Real Estate and Vestar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.