JLL closes $37.5 million sale of California center, says big-box retail is strong

A private family trust that developed Marketplace Beaumont in the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles in 2008 has sold it for $37.5 million in a marketplace in which investors are paying top dollar for viable retail centers in strong markets.

Brixton Capital emerged with the winning bid for the 187,851-sq.-ft. shopping center anchored by Aldi, Ross, Best Buy, Petco and Bed Bath & Beyond. The eight buildings that comprise Marketplace Beaumont contain five drive-thru pads-prized features sought by post-pandemic investors.

“The depth of capital pursuing the acquisition demonstrates the appetite available for quality retail assets,” said Pat Burger, managing director of the JLL Debt Advisory Team

Marketplace Beaumont is in the town of Beaumont in Riverside County, one of the fastest-growing submarkets in Southern California. More than 13,800 new homes have been added since 2018, and more than 20,000 are planned or under construction. Eighty-thousand-plus residents with household incomes of $82,236 live within a three-mile radius of the property.

“Big-box retail, along with the shops and pads surrounding it, has performed well through the pandemic, and we are seeing strong demand from both tenants to lease space and investors to enjoy the strong relative yields available in the space,” said Gleb Lvovich managing director of the JLL Retail Capital Markets team that represented the buyer.

Though it is part of the Greater Los Angeles Metro, the Inland Empire, which also includes the desert communities of the Coachella and Victor Valleys, is larger than 10 U.S. states, among them Massachusetts, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Maryland.