Faris Lee Investments, an Irvine-based retail advisory and investment sales firm, recently announced that it helped close the $22 million sale of Watson Marketplace, a fully-leased 90,000-square-foot retail center in Buckeye. The transaction comprised 55,153 square feet of retail space leased to national credit and regional tenants such as Goodwill, Denny’s and The UPS Store; plus two retail pads totaling about 10,000 square feet and ground-leased to McDonald’s and Bank of America.
Senior Managing Director Matthew Mousavi and Managing Directors Chris Tramontano and Patrick Luther of Irvine, Calif.-based Faris Lee represented the seller, Desert Troon Companies, which also developed the property. The buyer, San Diego-based Interstate Holdings, was represented by  Tramontano and Faris Lee Investments Director Tom Chichester.
Located at 441–733 S. Watson Road, the center is part of the South Watson Road retail corridor and is across the street from Sundance Towne Center, which features high-profile tenants such as Walmart Supercenter and Lowe’s. Spread across approximately 19.5-acres, Watson Marketplace also boasts a high traffic count due to its proximity to Interstate 10.
“Faris Lee implemented a breakup strategy for the property,” said Tramontano in a statement. “Marketing the anchored portion of the center and the two ground-leased retail pads individually would maximize value and meet the seller’s objective of selling the entire project this year. We secured several strong offers, particularly for the McDonald’s and Bank of America pads, which were in the low 4 percent cap rate range. However, the San Diego buyer required a larger transaction as part of the up-leg of its 1031 Exchange. Because of this, we negotiated an attractive, all cash-offer with an aggressive blended cap rate for the entire center.”