SoCal Retail Center Anchored by Amazon Fresh Secures $24M Refi
Village at Moorpark in southeastern Ventura County also has a Lucky Strike bowling alley
By Nick Trombola March 7, 2025 2:30 pm
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A commercial lending affiliate of national homebuilding giant Lennar has provided a refinancing loan tied to a shopping plaza in the southeastern corner of Ventura County in Southern California.
LMF Commercial’s $24 million, fixed-rate, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loan is tied to The Village at Moorpark, a roughly 130,000-square-foot shopping plaza in Moorpark, Calif., anchored by Amazon Fresh and a Lucky Strike bowling alley. Apartment Income Investors (AII), led by local investor Michael Chesser, owns the retail center. Traded first reported the news of the 10-year financing at a 6.82 percent interest rate.
The borrower acquired the shopping center in early 2020 for $20 million, records show, or “55 percent below replacement cost,” according to press materials from the firm. It had an occupancy rate of 94 percent at the time.
Chesser, as well as representatives for LMF Commercial and Lennar, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the latest financing deal.
Despite a rough few years in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and rise of e-commerce, there’s reason to be optimistic about Southern California’s retail market. A biannual survey conducted by law firm Allen Matkins and UCLA late last year found that sentiment for the retail sector among investors, brokers and developers is optimistic compared with previous surveys, as more development projects enter the pipeline and views about rent rates improve.
Indeed, the state’s retail sector has recently caught the eye of Blackstone, which earlier this year acquired Retail Opportunity Investment Corporation, a retail-focused real estate investment trust, in a deal valued at $4 billion. Blackstone acquired 93 retail properties across the West Coast as part of the deal, including eight in Orange County.
Lenders also feel at least somewhat confident in the viability of retail plazas in the region, exemplified by Deutsche Bank’s $140 million refinancing loan late last year tied to Castle & Cooke’s Crossing at Corona shopping center in Corona, Calif.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
