In early 2014, Investors Realty’s Ember Grummons was contacted to sell the Spring Ridge Shopping Center at 180th and Pacific Street. The shopping center was suffering as a result of the troubled economy over the previous several years. One building was only 35 percent occupied and the other, while 100 percent occupied, had past due rents and tenant turnover pending on over 60 percent of the space. Both buildings were also suffering from deferred maintenance and needed some TLC.

The two buildings that make up the shopping center were constructed at different times and had separate loans. Both were CMBS (commercial mortgage-backed securities) loans and each loan had a different maturity. Due to the financing and the seller’s financial position, a conventional sale would have been very difficult. Ember assisted the buyers in purchasing one building at a foreclosure auction and drafted a contract to buy the other building and close on it after the existing financing matured. This process took over a year, and the new owners closed on the second building in the fall of 2015.

Since the sale, the new owners have completed the needed repairs to the property and have given the exterior a face lift. The new owners engaged the IRI Retail Team of Brian Farrell and Brian Kuehl and, within the past several months, they have completed three leases totaling approximately 20,000 square feet with another lease in process. The Spring Ridge Shopping Center is now well on its way to a healthy recovery.

This article appeared in our quarterly newsletter from March of 2016. The full newsletter is available at http://files.investorsomaha.com/download/online_newsletter_3-2016.pdf