Phillips Edison buys Naples center for $17 million

Phillips Edison & Co. has acquired the Mission Hills Shopping Center in Naples for roughly $17 million.

The 7550 Mission Hills retail property is currently 96% leased to Winn-Dixie, Anytime Fitness and a host of other merchants. Seller The Hampshire Cos. had owned the 85,078-square-foot property since 2006, a year after it was completed.

More than 4,000 new homes are being built in the vicinity of the center.

“We're pretty programmatic owners,” says John Goldsmith, a portfolio manager for the New Jersey-based investment firm, whose portfolio contains assets valued at roughly $2.5 billion.

“We buy it, we fix it if need be, we stabilize it and we sell it. We don't fall in love with properties. We just felt it was a good time to sell for both the property and debt markets.

“We evaluate our portfolio on a bi-annual basis, and just decided in this case to alter the mix a bit,” Goldsmith adds. “There's certainly a lot to like about the Naples demographic, though, and we'd consider buying there again.”

Hampshire also recently spent about $200 million to acquire retail properties in Orlando and Port Saint Lucie.