Price REIT Purchases Target Center in Oxnard for $10.3 Million
Another major commercial real estate property is changing hands in north Oxnard.
Following the announcement that developer Martin V. “Bud” Smith has agreed to sell his holdings in the Financial Plaza, a San Diego-based investment trust has paid more than $10 million for a retail center across the street.
Price REIT Inc., an offshoot of the Price Club discount store chain, paid $10.3 million to purchase a 172,000-square-foot center at Esplanade Drive and Vineyard Avenue from Real Estate Investment Trust of California in Los Angeles.
The center includes a Target discount store and a Food 4 Less store operated by the Ralphs supermarket chain.
There is no link between the sale of the Target-anchored center and that of the much larger Financial Plaza.
“It’s just a coincidence,” said George M. Jezek, chief financial officer of Price REIT. “I wasn’t even aware of the other transaction.”
Smith, too, said the transactions are unrelated. His Martin V. Smith & Associates has agreed to sell most of its holdings, including the Financial Plaza Tower, the Ventura County National Bank Building and the Financial Plaza Hilton, to an investment fund operated by Tiger Real Estate, which is headquartered in New York.
The 21-story Financial Plaza Tower is Ventura County’s tallest building.
Both the Target-Food 4 Less center and the Financial Plaza lie just south of the Esplanade, a retail mall that is in danger of losing its Sears Roebuck and Robinsons May anchors to Ventura’s Buenaventura Mall.
Price REIT’s Jezek said his fund expects to earn more than 10% annually on its investment in the Target center, which is 100% occupied.
Price REIT, whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, began as a manager of properties owned by the Price Club discount chain and its founder, Sol Price. Real Estate Investment Trust is no longer related to the retail concern, Jezek said.
The trust owns 18 retail centers in seven states with a total value estimated at $386 million.
