Plant City retail center trades for $29 million

A Hollywood-based company that specializes in retail centers has purchased a Plant City shopping hub for $29 million.

JBL Asset Management’s acquisition of the Lake Walden Square becomes the latest in a series of Florida projects the company has invested in, together with assets in Orlando, Pembroke Pines and Miami Beach.

In all, JBL owns nearly two dozen retail centers in seven states, with a focus on Florida, Texas, New York and Georgia.

“We like to target assets in areas just outside strong metro areas,” says Alicia Hugh, JBL’s director of leasing and strategic planning. “And we love the Plant City market for that reason. It’s connected to both Tampa and Lakeland.”

The 244,529-square-foot center is anchored by a Winn-Dixie supermarket, along with merchants Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls, Michaels Stores Inc., PetSmart, Ulta and Five Below, among others.

The property, at 105 W. Alexander St., was more than 93% leased at the time of the sale. It was developed some three decades ago on nearly 27 acres.

JBL acquired Lake Walden from Retail Value Inc., a publicly traded firm that owns more than 45 shopping centers throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. Director Eric Williams, along with Senior Managing Director and retail practice co-leader Daniel Finkle and Managing Director Luis Castillo, represented Retail Value in the JBL transaction.

“The property really fits our investment criteria,” Hugh says. “The Winn-Dixie performs really well there, and the center has a real small-town feel to it, even though almost all of the tenants there are national in scope.”

She adds that the company is formulating a capital improvement plan for the property but that no final decisions have been made as yet.

Lake Walden becomes JBL’s third major Florida purchase in the past two years. In late 2016, the company acquired Orlando Gateway Village, a retail center on 62 acres, and followed that deal up with the $33.2 million purchase of the Flamingo Pines Plaza, in Pembroke Pines, last December.

In all, the 13-year-old company today controls more than two million square feet.