Teachers Fund Buys Retail Center in Anaheim Hills

In one of the larger commercial real estate sales in Orange County this year, an Ohio teachers pension fund has purchased the Anaheim Hills Festival retail center for more than $49 million.

The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio bought the 494,404-square-foot open-air mall, which is 95% leased with such tenants as Mervyn’s, Target, Edwards Theatres and Super Crown Books, brokers said.

“It is not a regional mall or a power center. The reason they invested is the quality of the project and high occupancy,” said Bill Dennis, a broker with CB Commercial in Newport Beach, which represented the seller, a private partnership of a major developer that he would not identify.

Dennis said the sale signals increasing strength in the Orange County commercial real estate market and shows that “the investment community is realizing the sky is not falling and the bottom has been reached.”