Azora Exan pays $22M for Aldi-anchored retail center in Plantation

JV between Madrid- and Miami-based firms acquired Plantation Crossing for $316 psf

Azora Exan’s Juan Jose Zaragoza (left), Fernando Perez-Hickman, Beth Azor and Plantation Crossing at 2140 West Sunrise Boulevard (Azora Exan, Beth Azor)
Azora Exan’s Juan Jose Zaragoza (left), Fernando Perez-Hickman, Beth Azor and Plantation Crossing at 2140 West Sunrise Boulevard (Azora Exan, Beth Azor)

In a $22.2 million deal, a partnership involving a Spanish real estate investment firm added an Aldi-anchored shopping center in Plantation to its South Florida shopping spree.

Azora Exan, a joint venture between Madrid-based Azora and Miami-based Exan Capital, acquired Plantation Crossing, a 70,369-square-foot retail site at 2140 West Sunrise Boulevard, according to a press release. The deal breaks down to roughly $316 a square foot.

Founded last year, Azora Exan paid $37 million in July for a five-story, Miami Beach building fully leased to WeWork. The firm is led by managing partners Juan Jose Zaragoza and Fernando Perez-Hickman.

Kirk Olsen and Drew Kristol led a Marcus & Millichap team that represented the buyer and the seller, an entity managed by Beth Azor, founder of Azor Advisory Services, a commercial real estate advisory and investment firm based in Weston.

In 2012, Azor’s entity paid $15.7 million for Plantation Crossing, which was built in 1999, records show.

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The shopping center hit the market less than three months ago with an asking price of $23 million, Azor said via email. Investor appetite for South Florida retail sites anchored by grocery stores played a role in selling Plantation Crossing, she added.

“The demand for grocery-anchored centers is very high, and very few were on the market when we decided to sell,” Azor said. “I believed we had done the most we could with it. We bought a non-grocery retail asset with very little credit tenants and added Aldi, Sherwin Williams and Concentra Health.”

Under her ownership, Plantation Crossing also added Fitness Systems to replace a Michaels store, and Salon Suites to take over a space previously occupied by Pier One, Azor said.

This month, an entity managed by Boca Raton-based real estate investor James Batmasian paid $17 million for a Deerfield Beach shopping center anchored by a Walmart Neighborhood Market. Also this month, Longpoint Realty Partners bought El Paraiso, a two-building shopping center in Hialeah, for $43.2 million. The property is anchored by a Sedano’s grocery store.