Southwood Village, Torrance, Calif.

In a recent retail investment comp out of LA’s South Bay region, a private 1031 exchange investor paid $21 mil for Southwood Village, a 67k sf ($313/sf) neighborhood retail center in Torrance. 
Situated on just over 5.5 acres at 22214-22252 and 22217-22251 Palos Verdes Blvd, and 5230 Sepulveda Blvd, the property was originally built in the 1950s and was renovated in 2003. At the time of sale, Southwood Village was 97% occupied with major tenants including Dollar Tree, ACE Hardware, Goodwill and Chevron. 

Richard Chichester and Donald MacLellan with Faris Lee Investments represented the seller, Los Angeles-based BIG Shopping Centers USA. The buyer, a local South Bay-based investor, was repped by Triwell Properties. 

“This was a challenging transaction as an approximate $10 mil CMBS loan on Southwood Village had to be assumed by the new buyer and subsequently required a large equity payment of $11 mil, resulting in less than a 50% LTV,” said MacLellan. “Faris Lee orchestrated this transaction by procuring an investor to acquire the buyer’s CVS-anchored center in Huntington Beach as part of their downleg which enabled the buyer to purchase Southwood Village as his upleg. In addition, we had to successfully expedite the loan assumption and close escrow within a timely manner to meet the seller’s reverse exchange timing.” 

Southwood Village is within the South Bay submarket, which is surrounded by the communities of Torrance, Redondo Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The property offers a prime location on highly traveled Sepulveda Blvd at the intersection of Palos Verdes Blvd, which has a combined traffic count of over 38,000 vehicles per day. Additionally, Southwood Village is just one mile west of recently renovated Del Amo Fashion Center, one mile east of Redondo Beach and two miles north of the iconic Palos Verdes Peninsula.