Done Deals: HFF announces sale and acquisition financing of grocery-anchored retail center near Minneapolis-St. Paul

Photo by John Sullivan
CityPlace, a mixed-use project at 305 Radio Drive in
the Minneapolis-St. Paul-area community of Woodbury, MN

CHICAGO, IL –– Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF) announces the sale of and the acquisition financing for the fully leased, Whole Foods Market-anchored retail component of the CityPlace mixed-use project in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-area community of Woodbury, Minnesota.

Amy Sands

The HFF team marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Elion Partners. Inland Retail Property Fund, LP is acquiring the asset, which will be the eighth shopping center acquired by the retail fund focused on necessity retail.

Clinton Mitchell

Additionally, the HFF team placed the 10-year, fixed-rate acquisition loan with Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. HFF will service the loan.

Elion Partners redeveloped the former State Farm regional corporate headquarters into CityPlace, a mixed-use concept of retail, medical office, entertainment, 236 hotel rooms and a residential component that includes 253 apartment units on its 100 acres.

The 184,711-square-foot, regionally dominant retail component included in the sale and financing was completed between 2016 and 2017 and features an ecommerce-proof mix of tenants, including:

Whole Foods Market, Nordstrom Rack, Sierra Trading Post, La-Z-Boy Furniture, Sur La Table, Verizon Wireless, Chuck & Don’s Pet Store, Café Zupas, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Cycle Bar, Discover Strength Personal Fitness and Potbelly Sandwich Works.

Daniel Finkle

CityPlace is located at 305 Radio Drive in Woodbury, which is 9.4 miles east of downtown St. Paul and 19 miles east of downtown Minneapolis.

The center has frontage along Radio Drive, Hudson Road and Interstate 94, which exposes it to a combined 105,000 vehicles per day.

More than 60,500 residents earning an average annual household income of $116,000 live within a three-mile radius of the property, and there are approximately 148,000 residents within the trade area.

The HFF investment advisory team representing the seller included senior directors Amy Sands and Clinton Mitchell and senior managing director and co-head of HFF’s retail practice Daniel Finkle along with managing director Jules Sherwood, a licensed Minnesota real estate broker.

Jules Sherwood

The HFF debt placement team representing the new owner consisted of managing director Timothy Joyce, managing director Elliott Throne and senior director Jason Bond.

“We are grateful to the city of Woodbury for their partnership, which, coupled with Elion’s integrated capabilities as both a fiduciary and an operator, made this complex transaction a reality,” said Juan DeAngulo, managing partner and co-founder of Elion Partners.

“This property is very special to us at Elion, and we are thrilled that it is now in great hands with Inland.”

“City Place, with its Whole Foods anchor and diverse tenancy, is a prime example of a quality necessity-based shopping center,” added Howard Fields, Inland Retail Property Fund portfolio manager. “We are delighted to add City Place to our portfolio.”

Timothy Joyce

“CityPlace is strategically located along Radio Drive with excellent access to and visibility from Interstate 94,” Sands said.

“We received very strong interest from both buyers and lenders for this offering due to the grocery-anchored and e-commerce-proof merchandising mix, as well as the credit anchor tenancy and long average lease term at the property.

"This is a great long-term investment for the buyer, and HFF was privileged to work with both the buyer and the seller on this transaction.”

Elion Partners is a vertically integrated real estate investment firm with institutional-grade capabilities.

Elliott Throne

Elion serves as both a fiduciary and an operator of real estate assets, managing over $2 billion through several closed-end funds and standalone permanent capital investment vehicles.

The firm serves as stewards of its clients' capital with a focus on preservation for the long-term.

Elion's principals invest significant capital in each fund to ensure the utmost alignment of interests with their LPs.

For more information, please visit http://www.elionpartners.com.

Inland Retail Property Fund, LP s an open-end fund that invests in necessity-based open-air retail shopping centers throughout the United States.

Jason Bond

HFF and its affiliates operate out of 26 offices and are a leading provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services to the global commercial real estate industry.

HFF, together with its affiliates, offers clients a fully integrated capital markets platform, including debt placement, investment advisory, equity placement, funds marketing, M&A and corporate advisory, loan sales and loan servicing.

HFF, HFF Real Estate Limited, HFF Securities L.P. and HFF Securities Limited are owned by HFF, Inc. (NYSE: HF).

For more information, please visit hfflp.comor follow HFF on Twitter @HFF.

CONTACTS:

Juan DeAngulo