Babcock Ranch developer sells St. Petersburg shopping center

The Bay Pines shopping center on U.S. Alternate 19 has been sold.

The 9,110-square-foot strip mall was bought by an undisclosed publicly traded real estate investment trust for $4.65 million. The seller was developer Kitson & Partners.

The shopping center sits on 1.01 acres across the street from the C. W. Bill Young Veterans Administration Medical Center.  

Plaza Advisors, which announced the deals, says the St. Petersburg center is an outparcel of a Walmart Supercenter. It was 85% occupied at the time of sale with a tenant roster that includes Starbucks, Supercuts and Jimmy John’s.

The deal was the last piece of a three-property portfolio owned by Kitson & Partners.

The other two, Texas Roadhouse and Village Inn restaurants next to the center, were sold to 1031 investors in separate deals in June.

According to Pinellas County records, the Texas Roadhouse sold for $2.9 million to a Philadelphia investor and the Village Inn sold for $2.2 million to a St. Louis investor.

Kitson is real estate developer best known for Babcock Ranch, the 18,000-acre solar-powered community on the border of Lee and Charlotte counties.

Jeff Berkezchuk and Jim Michalak represented Kitson for Tampa-based Plaza Advisors.

Berkezchuk, in a statement, says the shopping center got a lot of attention from investors because of its tenant mix and opportunities to fill the vacant space.

“Unanchored strip centers have become a highly desirable property type with a bevy of investors entering into the market” a trend that made the property attractive, he says.