Walgreens’ South Florida sell off continues as the pharmacy retailer sold a store near Coral Gables. It’s the tenth retail property the national chain has sold in the last 10 months.
An entity managed by Steve Creekmore in Fort Smith, Arkansas, paid $12.7 million for a single-story retail building spanning 12,900 square feet at 3490 Bird Road, according to records and Vizzda. Walgreens signed a new 15-year lease with 5 percent rental rate increases every five years.
In 2006, Walgreens bought the nearly 1-acre site for $5.7 million, and completed the store three years later.
With the latest deal, Walgreens has sold nine stores in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties since December. Under CEO Rosalind Brewer, the retailer has shifted its business strategy to provide more medical services. The publicly traded company doubled its ownership stake in VillageMD, a chain of primary care clinics. The goal is to provide VillageMD services in Walgreens drugstores, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Walgreens can maintain its market share in neighborhoods with high foot traffic by leasing back some of its more profitable stores. And selling the real estate gives the company capital for its business expansion plans.
Last month, Walgreens sold a pair of stores in Miami and Hialeah for a combined $15.6 million, records show. Miami-based Limestone Asset Management acquired a 16,800-square-foot store in Hialeah completed in 2011. The firm also bought a store in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood spanning 18,750 square feet that Walgreens bought for $5.4 million in 2007.
In April, a Beverly Hills-based investor paid Walgreens $9.3 million for a 17,300-square-foot store in North Miami Beach. The previous month, Miami-based Orion Real Estate Group paid $7.8 million for a 17,200-square-foot Walgreens in unincorporated southwest Miami-Dade.
Between December and February, Walgreens sold five stores in Boca Raton, Jupiter, Miami. Plantation and Weston for a combined $47.2 million.