BAKERSFIELD, CA—Faris Lee Investments, a leading retail advisory and investment sales firm, has completed the $29.3 sale of Rosedale Village, a 222,000-square-foot community center located at one of the busiest intersections in Bakersfield. Faris Lee effectively differentiated the opportunity with Rosedale Village, one of only two community centers that serve the northwest trade area of Bakersfield, through a high level advisory approach to the investment opportunity, ultimately attracting 12 highly qualified offers.
Donald MacLellan, Rick Chichester, Chris DePierro and Tom Chichester of Faris Lee Investments represented both the buyer, JH Real Estate Partners, and seller, Standard Management, in the transaction.
Rosedale Village is located at Rosedale Highway and Calloway Road, one of Bakersfield’s busiest intersections with approximately 74,900 vehicles per day. Due to the market’s extremely low vacancy rate of 2%, no competing big box opportunities in the trade area, and under-market rents, Rosedale Village presented a unique value-add opportunity within the Southern California basin.
According to MacLellan, one of the first aspects to Faris Lee’s strategy was effectively differentiating Bakersfield. While the market perception was that Bakersfield was not a top tier market, the city actually benefits from a strong oil and energy industry base driving jobs and investment comparable to cities like Austin and Houston.
The center was also positioned as an extremely well-located class B center in an 'A location'. The older center currently has two dark anchors providing an opportunity for new owners to bring in stronger co-tenants and increase rents.
“There are no vacancies in the market leaving this center as the only option for retailers looking to expand into Bakersfield,” said MacLellan.
“The diversity of investor interest looking at this opportunity reflects the strength of the retail investment market. This asset attracted 12 highly qualified offers from developers, REITs, institutional funds and 1031 buyers. Ultimately this became a 1031 value-oriented exchange transaction,” noted Chichester.
Another aspect to the Faris Lee team’s marketing strategy was a focus on providing a strong marketing positioning for Rosedale Village. The team worked with an architect and construction consultant to demonstrate the potential redevelopment opportunities inherent with the center and potential for greater returns. Lastly, the marketing team enlisted the local Colliers leasing team of Garret Tuckness and JJ Woods who assisted the process by providing valuable market information. All of this upfront work was instrumental in achieving the sellers’ pricing expectations and timing. The overall marketing strategy was to demonstrate how to add greater value and move the center from a B- to class A asset.