A three-year-old, Boston-based commercial real estate firm led a $25.5 million joint venture purchase of Fresh Market Village in Jupiter.
JB Capital Management acquired the 55,046-square-foot retail center at 311 East Indiantown Road, in partnership with Royce Properties LLC, a Woodbury, Connecticut-based family office, according to a release.
The seller is an affiliate of Adar Investments and Management, a commercial real estate firm based in Sunny Isles Beach, records show. Adar paid $8.3 million for the property in 2013.
An Atlantic Capital Partners team led by Justin Smith represented the seller.
Built in 1983, the shopping center is anchored by a Fresh Market. Other tenants include 2 Vinez Restaurant & Wine Bar, Starbucks, Casa Mia and women’s clothing boutique Gretchen Scott Designs.
Jessica Giguere, a JB Capital principal and co-founder, told The Real Deal that the joint venture was attracted to Fresh Market Village’s 97 percent occupancy rate, the property’s proximity to the Intracoastal Waterway and Jupiter’s strong demographics.
Fresh Market Village is JB Capital’s second deal in South Florida after starting out small. The firm acquired a 10,230-square-foot warehouse for $1.1 million in Lake Worth last year, Giguere said.
“We were focused on industrial real estate, but it has gotten more and more expensive,” Giguere said. “We started looking more into retail. There is a little more opportunity there. Before Covid and during Covid, retail in Florida has been performing very well.”
JB Capital and Royce Properties were on the hunt for well-maintained retail centers with good class A retail tenants, Giguere said. “We stumbled across this one,” she said. “We put our hat in the bidding war and ended up being the winners in the deal.”
Founded in 2018, JB Capital owns close to $100 million in real estate assets with various entities as partners in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, Giguere said.
Sales of South Florida retail centers are booming at a time average retail rents are climbing back to pre-pandemic levels, according to a third quarter Colliers report.
Crow Holdings, based in Dallas, recently paid $32.5 million for the Turtle Crossing shopping plaza in Coral Springs. In Hialeah, Horizon Properties acquired the Publix-anchored El Mercado Plaza in Hialeah for $33 million.
Last month, a company managed by Hollywood-based real estate investor Todd Nepola bought a Dollar General-anchored shopping center in Margate for $10.7 million, and Miami-based Zenix Properties spent $13.5 million for the fully-leased Promenade Shoppes in North Lauderdale.