C&W Hits Spring with $140M of New Retail Listings; Colony Place in Plymouth on Roster

PLYMOUTH, MA—A 470,000-sf shopping center here that includes a popular lifestyle component is among four retail assets being marketed by Cushman & Wakefield, officials for its Boston Capital Market Group are confirming. Colony Place in Plymouth (pictured) is expected to trade in the $100 million range, according to industry estimates. C&W Executive VP Geoff Millerd declined comment on particulars, but does acknowledge his team is handling the Plymouth assignment, and also concurs that a trio of New England shopping centers are being peddled separately on behalf of Edens & Avant.

Millerd declined to identify the clients in either case, but records indicate Edens & Avant owns all three of those properties, one in Taunton; another in Richmond, RI; and the final being Norwichtown Mall in Norwich, CT. Anticipating an aggregate yield of around $40 million, Millerd says the three are being offered individually, but would not handicap pricing on each center, explaining that each has their own unique situation. The bottom line to Millerd is that all are being made available below replacement cost, and each offers potential for income growth. “The should be really desirable,” Millerd says.

Even in the prolonged slump, grocery anchored centers have outdone the rest of the shopping world in occupancy and rental results, relays Millerd, who says the Norwich asset features an especially vibrant Stop & Shop that offers hope for future gains. “That’s a very good redevelopment opportunity,” Millerd says of the center at 36-44 Town St. Presently the 228,000-sf mall is only about 60 percent occupied, but observers maintain that is only because Edens & Avant was in the middle of repositioning the asset when the well-known retail powerhouse changed its strategy with an eye towards focusing on other investments. Edens & Avant did not return phone calls by press deadline seeking comment on the South Carolina-based firm’s intentions. Millerd would only confirm the centers are being pitched on behalf of a “major” operator.

While not in the most populated venues, the Norwichtown Mall does benefit from a location off Interstate 395, says Millerd, who predicts savvy investors will recognize the upside, cemented by the Super Stop & Shop anchor. The infill mall site is the sort many buyers today appreciate, he says, and will be in a pricing sphere that has carried the CRE investment pace since 2009.

Known as Plaza 44, the 135,000-sf Taunton asset on Route 44 (a/k/a 280 Winthrop St.) is dominated by a 75,000-sf Shaw’s Supermarket, on the upper end of the scale size-wise for any such operation. The long-term Shaw’s lease provides a chance for rent accretion over time, explains Millerd, who would not offer specifics on current income. Overall, the property is stable, he says, with only about 8,500 sf up for grabs.

The 60,500-sf Ocean State asset at 22 Kingstown Rd. is a stand-alone Stop & Shop, a larger-scale store that has the added bonus of an on-site gas station. Approximately 10 years old, the asset is surrounded by several major fast food restaurants, including Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, Tim Horton’s and Wendy’s.

Back in Massachusetts, buyers with heftier budgets have an opportunity in Colony Place, with Millerd reporting a robust response in the early stages of marketing what is touted as the largest such operation of its kind on the South Shore. “It has a great tenant lineup,” the veteran broker says. Denizens among more than three dozen major brands include Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dick’s Sporting Goods, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Michael’s and Wal-Mart. The lifestyle element has attracted the likes of Lane Bryant, Old Navy and Talbots. A venture of Middleborough-based Saxon Partners, Colony Place includes the original plaza and the Village at Colony Place that opened in Sept. 2007 as a flood of lifestyle center concepts were coming into New England. Unlike the Plymouth offering, launched with 28 stores and more than 200,000 sf, most of the competing plans fell by the wayside, done in by the crumbling economy. The limited supply of such fresh product should be another draw for investors, Millerd says, especially given the center’s warm reception by the South Shore consumer constituency. “They do real well,” Millerd says of Colony Place.

The latest listings on the firm’s plate accent an already busy beginning for C&W’s retail team. Just last month, as first unveiled by The Real Reporter, Millerd joined principals Robert E. Griffin Jr., Edward C. Maher Jr. and Associate Allen Potts in selling Somerset Square in Glastonbury, CT, to TA Associates Realty, a Boston-based firm that spent $24.5 million for that 16-year-old center. That followed up on the $21.0 million purchase a week before of Derry Meadows in Derry, NH, with Katz Properties secured by C&W to acquire the three-building, 187,000-sf property anchored by a Hannaford Brothers supermarket. “The appetite for retail is very strong right now,” conveys Millerd, who says the major challenge has been in recruiting sellers willing to test the market. That attitude could be changing thanks to the improving economy and recent pricing results of assets that have traded, says Millerd.