Echo Realty LP buys Westgate Plaza

BUYER: Echo Westgate LLC, Pittsburgh
SELLER: Kimco Westgate Plaza LLC
PROPERTY: 12020 Anderson Road, Tampa
PRICE: $11.24 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $12.1 million, March 2007
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Cozen O'Connor, Philadelphia

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Pittsburgh-based Echo Realty LP purchased the 100,200-square-foot Westgate Plaza in Citrus Park from Kimco for $11.24 million.

The price equated to $112 per square foot. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per square foot for retail space ($146) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The center is anchored by a 55,000-square-foot Publix grocery store and 8,003-square-foot Dollar Tree. Other tenants include a 4,198-square-foot Winners Grill, 3,000-square-foot Greenberg Dental & Orthodontics, 2,636-square-foot HoneyBaked Ham, 2,175-square-foot Twisted Lime Spirits, 2,007-square-foot Pizza Hut, 2,000-square-foot Fashion Nails, 1,400-square-foot Great Clips and 1,150-square-foot Subway.

It had a single vacancy at the time of the sale.

The acquisition marks Echo Realty's entry to the Florida market. To date, the company has only invested in retail properties in the mid-Atlantic (Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) and Ohio, but has more recently been looking to expand to Florida , according to Howard Biel, senior vice-president of acquisitions and development for Echo Realty.

“With Westgate we were drawn to a number of different things,” Biel says. “We love doing business with the Publix supermarket group. We liked the sales performance of the stores of all the stores that were there. We like the traffic patterns at Gunn [Highway] and Anderson [Road]. It also has the possibility of being upgraded both on the physical design and the leasing. Overall, we see this as a long-haul assets that is very capable of being more productive.”

The company is already looking at a number of other retail properties in Florida, Biel says, including a ground-up retail project in Broward County.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Crosland LLC has been retained to manage the center.

Echo Realty is a developer, owner and operator of commercial real estate and currently owns more than 8.5 million square feet of space in more than 180 properties.