ST. LOUIS — A Clayton real estate firm credited "resilient fundamentals" for how it was able to sell its 95,852-square foot shopping center in Lake St. Louis during a pandemic that's devastated retail.
Midwest Retail Properties (MRP) sold The Shoppes at Hawk Ridge, 6125 Ronald Reagan Drive, to an undisclosed West Coast investor for $20.5 million. MRP, led by CEO Joe McClary and President Jordan Breck, bought the retail center in 2018 for $16.5 million.
The sale comes amid a challenging retail landscape that's led to store closures, bankruptcies and lingering consumer preference of e-commerce over brick and mortar, according to a McKinsey survey. Nationally, total retail sales fell 8.1% in the second quarter of 2020, the largest decline since the second quarter in 2009, CBRE research shows.
But for MRP, Breck said Covid has proven his firm has a successful strategy of acquiring retail centers next to Walmart stores, also called Walmart-anchored shadow centers, in secondary markets across the country.
Hawk Ridge is 98% occupied, with a third of the center housing national tenants, including Dollar Tree. Other tenants include Massage Luxe, Fantastic Sams, DeForest Dental, Sally Beauty, Complete Fitness, Subway and BJC Medical Group.
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