Avi Dishi jumped into the South Florida grocery store-anchored shopping center frenzy with a $20.7 million purchase in West Palm Beach.
An entity managed by the New York-based retail real estate investor bought the Shoppes at Cresthaven at 2675 South Military Trail, according to records. Dishi’s acquisition is anchored by a Presidente Supermarket store. His entity paid $120 a square foot for the 172,364-square-foot retail center completed in 1987.
Seller NG Shoppes At Cresthaven LLC, managed by Elchonon Schwartz, paid $12.6 million for Shoppes at Cresthaven in 2015, records show. Schwartz co-founded New York-based Nightingale, a commercial real estate firm with an office and retail portfolio spanning more than 11 million square feet across 22 states, according to the firm’s website.
In addition to Presidente, other tenants at Shoppes at Cresthaven include Burnett International College, CitiTrends, Dollar Tree, Just for Sports, Wellmax and Youfit.
Across South Florida, outdoor shopping centers anchored by grocery stores have led the region’s retail recovery, igniting demand from institutional and private investors. In the most recent quarter, Palm Beach County’s retail vacancy rate dipped to 4.9 percent, compared to 5.2 percent during the same period of 2020, according to Colliers. The average asking rent went up to $27 a square foot in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to $23.44 a square foot during the same quarter of the previous year.
This month, Jacksonville-based Sleiman Enterprises paid $48 million for Delray Square, a Publix-anchored shopping plaza in Delray Beach. Last month, an entity with ties to Delray Beach-based Raitt Corporation paid $5.1 million for an outparcel in Boynton Beach that will be anchored by Sprouts. And Chicago area-based RMS Properties paid $16.8 million for the Winn-Dixie-anchored Southland Shopping Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Dishi, president of New York-based Elysee Investment Company, previously focused on acquiring commercial spaces in South Florida luxury condominiums. In 2019, Dishi and his partner Haim Yehezkel acquired the ground floor and mezzanine commercial spaces at Brickell Flatiron for $22.5 million. The same year, the partnership also sued an affiliate of Brickell Flatiron developer CMC Group over changes in the design of the commercial spaces. The lawsuit was settled in September, according to court records. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.