Wespac Sells 2 Shopping Centers to Original Owners

Wespac Investors Trust II, a Newport-based real estate investment trust, sold back two South Carolina shopping centers to their original owners at a $1.3-million loss.

Wespac, formed in 1982 by Wespac Financial Corp., its sponsoring company, brought the North Strand Shopping Center in Myrtle Beach and the Shoppers Port Shopping center in Charleston from Edens and Avant Inc, a South Carolina-based real estate firm in 1983, according to John D. Pruitt, Wespac’s vice president of marketing. But Wespac’s Board of Trustees decided to sell the centers back to Edens and Avant last month for $4,010,000 because operating costs were too high and the centers generated limited income, Pruitt said.

The sale resulted in a reduction in book value of trusts from $4.50 to $4.30, a total of $822,000 for the whole company.

Wespac owns five other properties in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Florida.