Richardson, Texas — read This story and more North Texas business news From our partners at the Dallas Business Journal.
A landmark 200,000-plus square-foot shopping center in Richardson has sold for $40.5 million.
Oklahoma City-based JAH Realty LP, through affiliate JAHCO Richardson Heights LLC, purchased the property anchored by an Alamo Drafthouse and TJ Maxx at the southwest corner of Beltline Road and U.S. 75, according to a JAH news release.
Houston-based Silver Star Properties REIT Inc. sold the shopping center as part of a broader effort to dispose of legacy assets as it shifts its strategy toward self-storage and single-tenant retail space, according to a Silver Star news release.
With the sale of Richardson Heights, Silver Star plans to sell its remaining 20 legacy properties “as expeditiously as possible.”
“The transition of legacy assets and the acquisition of self-storage and single-tenant real estate assets are fundamental to the success of our New Direction Plan,” the release said.
JLL Capital Markets represented Silver Star in the sale. JLL’s (NYSE: JLL) investment sales and advisory team was led by senior managing directors Adam Howells and Chris Gerard, associate Ben Esterer and analyst Keenan Ryan.
Built in the early 1950s, Richardson Heights was Richardson’s first shopping center and has been a community anchor for the past 70 years, according to a news release from the buyer, seller and JLL.
The center is currently 79% leased and is home to retail, restaurant and service outlets including Alamo Drafthouse, Half Price Books, McDonald’s, Party City, Skechers and TJ Maxx. The Alamo Drafthouse closed after its former franchisee filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, but plans are in place to reopen the cinema and dining venue after the chain was acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Located at 100 S. Central Expressway, Richardson Heights features 175 feet of highly visible frontage on U.S. 75 and serves more than 148,000 residents within a three-mile radius, according to JAH. The center is surrounded by affluent residential neighborhoods and is close to the University of Texas at Dallas, making it a diverse destination for families and young professionals, according to a release from JAH.
JAH Managing Director Graham Irvine said in a statement that the 201,433-square-foot shopping center is undergoing an extensive renovation that will include architectural enhancements, façade revisions, landscaping and lighting upgrades and other improvements. JAH knows the area well, with multiple properties within a few miles of the intersection, and is “confident in its long-term tenure and potential at Richardson Heights,” he said.
Graham said JAH plans to release elevations of the renovation plans in the coming weeks and announce a timeline for completion of the work later this year. The company’s focus on repositioning Richardson Heights will begin with a marketing effort to attract one or more tenants for the roughly 30,000 square feet of remaining vacant space in the middle of the shopping center.
“We have been looking at Richardson Heights on and off for a number of years and decided to focus our acquisitions team on the asset when JLL resumed marketing it earlier this year,” Graham’s statement said.
With this acquisition, JAH now owns and operates a retail portfolio of approximately 2.8 million square feet in Dallas-Fort Worth and Oklahoma City, which it manages and leases with its in-house team.
