Here are South Florida’s biggest retail deals of 2022

Investors paying top dollar for South Florida retail properties had to dig deeper into their pockets this year than they did in 2021. Still, some sellers lost money unloading 2022’s most expensive retail buildings and complexes.

This year’s top two deals surpassed last year’s biggest transaction, the $108 million sale of the Shops at Beacon Lakes power center. And 2022’s fifth highest deal was more than $5 million above last year’s third largest sale: Germany-based Union Investments’ $79.5 million purchase of the Fountains of Boynton, a Publix-anchored shopping center in Boynton Beach.

Grocery store-anchored properties powered the South Florida retail market through the first half of this year, but such deals dwindled during the remainder of 2022.

The trend of lenders taking over struggling malls through foreclosure also continued. In August, a commercial mortgage-backed securities trust paid $43 million for Broward Mall in Plantation at auction. The purchase price was less than half that the $101.4 million that the previous owner, Amsterdam-based Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, owed the CMBS trust.

Here are the top five deals of 2022:

$216 million | Mary Brickell Village | Miami

Mary Brickell Village in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood (Averette, CC BY 3.0 – via Wikimedia Commons)

New York-based RPT Realty’s $216 million purchase of Mary Brickell Village was double the price that Boston-based AEW Capital Management paid for Shops at Beacon Lakes last year, which marked the highest-priced sale of 2021.

As the buyer of 2022’s most expensive retail property in South Florida, RPT took over the 200,000-square-foot indoor-and-outdoor plaza anchored by a Publix store and an LA Fitness gym. In Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, Mary Brickell Village also has several restaurants, including Balan’s, Novecento, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Shake Shack; Blue Martini and other venues.

The seller, Boston-based Rockpoint, paid $113.5 million for Mary Brickell Village in 2015.

$180.5 million | The Shops at Pembroke Gardens | Pembroke Pines

Shops at Pembroke Gardens in Pembroke Pines (Courtesy of Shops at Pembroke Gardens)

Federal Realty Investment Trust bought the second most expensive retail property of the past year at a discount. The Rockville, Md.-based firm paid $180.5 million for The Shops at Pembroke Gardens, a Pembroke Pines outdoor shopping center featuring Nike, Sephora and Old Navy as tenants.

The sale price was $7.5 million below the $188 million that the seller, Cincinnati-based Jeffrey A. Anderson Real Estate, paid for the shopping center in 2015.

$100.3 million | Southland Mall | Cutler Bay

Southland Mall in Cutler Bay (Google Maps)

North Palm Beach-based Electra America and Miami-based BH Group teamed up to acquire Southland Mall in Cutler Bay for $100.3 million from the underperforming center’s lender.

In February of last year, the trustee for a JP Morgan Chase securities trust seized the property following a $68.7 million judgment against the previous owner. In October, Electra and BH added the shuttered Sears store at Southland Mall, paying Seritage Growth Properties $34 million for the 130,000-square-foot big-box building.

Electra, BH and Electra’s Tampa-based affiliate American Landmark plan to reposition and renovate Southland Mall, and redevelop other portions of the 80-acre site into a $1 billion mixed-use project. It will have a 150-key hotel, 4,395 apartments, medical offices and new retail out parcels.

$93.6 million | 1100 Lincoln Road | Miami Beach

1100 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach (LoopNet)

The Regal Cinemas-anchored retail building on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach also sold at a price cut, despite being the third most expensive retail property this year.

An affiliate of Steve Gozini’s BH Properties, based in Los Angeles, paid $93.6 million for the 253,000-square-foot building spanning four stories, including a garage.

In 2012, Steve Roth’s Vornado Realty Trust paid $132 million for 1100 Lincoln Road, so the firm sold it for $38.4 million below its purchase price a decade ago.

$85.8 million | Shops at Boca Center | Boca Raton

Shops at Boca Center in Boca Raton (Facebook/Shops at Boca Center)

In the fifth biggest retail deal, Cleveland-based Site Centers paid $85.8 million for Shops at Boca Center, an outdoor shopping center that was developed as part of a mixed-use project that includes a hotel and offices. Retail tenants include Agalia Fine Jewelers, Boutique A La Mode, Chico’s, Morton’s The Steakhouse and Tap42. The transaction also included a 1.8-acre vacant lot.

Seller Barings also sold Boca Center’s two office buildings for a combined $171.5 million. In 2014, the Charlotte, N.C.-based real estate firm paid $193.8 million for the entire Boca Center mixed-use complex.