Applebee's sales a signal of the health of retail market

In a further sign that the Gulf Coast retail market remains healthy — at least for triple net deals involving credit tenants — a Tampa-based investment firm has sold 14 properties occupied by Applebee's restaurants for $46 million.

BVI 13 LLC, an entity controlled by Franklin Carson, sold the more than a dozen restaurants to separate buyers.

Each of the stand-alone restaurants, from the Orlando metropolitan area throughout the Gulf Coast, has between 17 years and 20 years left on its lease.

The going-in capitalization rate for the properties was 5.9%, says David Sobelman, executive vice president and managing partner for the Tampa office of Calkain Cos., a Virginia-based commercial brokerage firm that specializes in net leases properties.

Sobelman and Teal Henderson of Calkain represented BVI in the transactions.

“In this instance it made more financial sense for our client to split the properties up and sell them individually,” Sobelman says.

Investors have been drawn to net leased properties — where tenants take care of certain expenses like utilities or taxes — because they typically provide predictable income streams.