Big Orange County Shopping Center Hits the Market for $300M

Owners of a 853,000-square-foot shopping center in Southern California are looking to sell the asset in what could be one of the biggest post-pandemic single-asset retail deals in the United States.

PGIM Real Estate and DJM Capital are marketing for sale the Bella Terra property in Orange County, Calif., which could pull about $300 million, according to Green Street’s Real Estate Alert. Although that mark is lower than the center was valued at nearly a decade ago, a sale at that price would make it “one of the biggest single-asset trades of a U.S. retail property within the past four years,” per Green Street’s database.

Eastdil Secured is marketing the property for the owners. 

Bella Terra is 96.8 percent leased at 7777 Edinger Avenue in Huntington Beach, just off the Beach Boulevard exit from  Interstate 405. Whole Foods is the grocery anchor. Costco has a store and a ground lease at the property. Other tenants include Burlington, a movie theater, The Cheesecake Factory, Kohl’s, REI and Ulta Beauty.

The sellers tout Bella Terra as one of the top 1 percent of shopping centers in terms of foot traffic, according to Real Estate Alert. The existing shopping center was built in 1966 and redeveloped in 2005. San Jose-based DJM bought it in 2005 and PGIM bought a 75 percent stake in 2015 in a deal that valued the asset at about $385 million.

About a year and a half ago, the owners also secured entitlements to build 300 multifamily units and 25,000 square feet of new retail in place of two existing buildings that combine for 172,000 square feet of retail space.

DJM is also behind the nine-figure Ovation Hollywood redevelopment in Los Angeles at the retail center formerly known as Hollywood & Highland, as well as a list of other retail renovations and projects throughout the region.

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.