New owner for portions of West End shopping center. What’s next for neighboring site?
There’s a new owner for two portions of a West End Tacoma shopping center, while its neighbor to the north appears to be on the market.
Two swaths of parcels that are part of Westgate South shopping center sold for $12.9 million in a transaction recorded June 14 to CH-FSR I/Tacoma Westgate South, LLC, affiliated with Dallas-based Crow Holdings, a real estate investment firm owned by the Crow family. Billionaire Harlan Crow serves as its board chairman.
It’s not Crow Holdings’ first investment in the area. In December, The News Tribune reported it is involved in a joint venture with Irvine, California-based Panattoni in developing FRED310, a sprawling industrial park in Frederickson.
The Westgate South sale involves sections of property at 2401 N. Pearl St. and 2315 N. Pearl St. Adjacent anchors (not part of the sale) include Big Lots and Planet Fitness. The seller was an LLC tied to an LA-based private real estate investment fund, according to the seller’s representative, Northmarq. The LLC’s Washington state corporate filing shows it to be affiliated with Oakhurst Funds.
The Oakhurst-affiliated LLC acquired its Westgate South holdings in November 2021 for $10.35 million.
Northmarq, in its release, noted this was its second time in three years to be involved in selling at the site.
“Our involvement with Westgate South spans nearly two decades and multiple sales including this $12.9 million disposition,” said Sean Tufts, one of the Northmarq agents involved in the sale, in the release. “We’re thrilled to have helped a great client execute the full strategy, and we’re excited for the new buyer to continue to expand their portfolio in the Northwest.”
Westgate North
Meanwhile, two years after expanding its shopping center portfolio on the West Coast and including a Tacoma site, its owner appears to have placed it back on the market this spring.
Westgate North Shopping Center, 2637 N. Pearl St., was purchased by Washington, D.C.-based EDENS at the end of March 2022 for just over $38 million.
Commercial real estate firm JLL as of May 8, 2024, had the shopping center listed “as an exclusive advisor.”
The Tacoma shopping center listing touts an “affluent population base with disposable income.”
No asking price is listed, but a link to confidential information is provided to those who register for JLL’s “Deal Room.”
EDEN’s 2022 purchase of Westgate North was part of a sweep of West Coast acquisitions for the national retail investor entity that included Lakeland Town Center, 1404-1416 Lake Tapps Parkway E., in Auburn near Lake Tapps.
The Auburn site does not appear listed for sale at this time, and it along with the Tacoma property remain the only two shopping centers owned by EDENS in Washington state.
Neither representatives with EDEN nor JLL responded to requests for comment.
Westgate North recently made headlines for the opening of Pierce County’s first Big Chicken franchise at the site.
The real estate listing noted that the center is “shadow-anchored by an ultra high-performing Safeway that ranks as one of the top performers in the country ... This opportunity provides investors the ability to own one of the dominant neighborhood centers in Tacoma’s West End submarket at an attractive basis with future leasing upside.“
The “shadow anchor” reference alludes to the fact that the Safeway property and its parking lot are owned separately by Safeway/Albertsons.
The grocery chain is in the middle of a merger attempt with Kroger, with plans to jettison some grocery sites to win regulatory approval. No specific addresses have been made public of the sites to be spun off.
On April 26, a King County judge ruled that Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s antitrust lawsuit to block the proposed merger could continue. The case is set to begin trial Sept. 16.
