Suburban Philadelphia retail center sold for $18.25M

PHILADELPHIA, January 23, 2020 – JLL Capital Markets announced today that it has closed the $18.25 million sale of and $12.9 million in acquisition financing for Larchmont Commons, a 128,172-square-foot, grocery- and gym-anchored necessity-based retail center in the suburban Philadelphia community of Mt. Laurel, New Jersey.

JLL marketed the property on behalf of the seller, RPC Real Estate and Merion Realty Partners’ asset management group. Gorman & Co. LLC purchased the asset. Additionally, working on behalf of the new owner, JLL placed the 10-year, fixed-rate acquisition loan with an Institutional capital source.

Anchored by ALDI, Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree, Larchmont Commons is 88% leased to a mix of mostly internet-resistant service tenants, including Hair Cuttery, The UPS Store and Kumon Learning Center. The center is situated on Route 38 West, less than 1.7 miles from Interstate 295, which provides direct connection to the New Jersey Turnpike, and approximately 12 miles from the Philadelphia CBD. The center has an affluent Burlington County customer base that includes 38,572 residents, earning an average annual household income of $141,613, living within a three-mile radius of the center.

The JLL Retail Capital Markets team representing the seller was led by Senior Managing Directors Chris Munley, James Galbally and Jose Cruz and Senior Director Colin Behr.

“There has been a steady increase in investor demand for Grocery-Anchored product within the Greater Philadelphia marketplace, resulting in correlating cap-rate compression since the start of 2019.” Munley said. “With the steady flow of new capital JLL has witnessed entering the retail investment market, we anticipate that to continue into 2020.”

“The complementary nature of the tenant roster, highlighted by Aldi, Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree, drove both investor interest and pricing during the sales process,” Behr added.

The JLL Capital Markets debt placement team representing the new owner included Senior Managing Director Ryan Ade.

JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment advisory, debt placement, equity placement or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,700 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

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Merion Realty Partners (“Merion”) was established in 2011 as a vertically integrated real estate investment and management platform. Merion is dedicated to pursuing and operating investment opportunities for institutional and high net-worth investors. Visit merionrealtypartners.com for more information. 

RPC Real Estate LLC, Retail Profit Centers, (“RPC”) was established in February 2005 by Jeffrey D. Hipple to purchase undervalued and underperforming neighborhood convenience shopping centers located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.  RPC Real Estate offers premier management and leasing expertise throughout the greater Philadelphia Region. For more information, visit rpcrealestate.com. 

Gorman & Company, LLC (“Gorman”) is a private real estate investment company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, specializing in high-quality, non-speculative, community, neighborhood and regional mixed-use projects. For more than 30 years, the principals of Gorman & Co. and its predecessor companies have been engaged in the land acquisition and successful ground up development of more than three million square feet of office, retail, residential, self-storage and mixed-use properties throughout the region with an aggregate value of more than $400 million. Together, the team at Gorman & Co. has cultivated lasting relationships with its professionals in engineering, architecture and construction to create dynamic real estate that has a positive impact on the communities they serve.