El Gato Village, a shopping center anchored by Nob Hill Foods, located at 15710 Los Gatos Blvd. in Los Gatos.
(Google Maps)
LOS GATOS — A high-profile shopping center in Los Gatos that’s anchored by a well-known grocery store has been bought by a Bay Area developer with wide-ranging real estate interests.
El Gato Village, a Los Gatos neighborhood center whose primary anchor is gourmet supermarket Nob Hill Foods, was purchased for $33 million, according to documents filed on Feb. 15 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
Palo Alto-based Levin Johnston, a division of Marcus & Millichap, a commercial real estate firm, and Los Altos-based TayCon Real Estate arranged the purchase of the center, which totals 56,500 square feet and occupies 3.4 acres.
“The investment appeal of this asset is largely driven by its strong location, the ongoing success of grocery-anchored centers, and the solid employment fundamentals of the Los Gatos area,” said Adam Levin, executive managing director of Levin Johnston.
Prado Group is the new owner of the shopping center, which has addresses that include 15710 Los Gatos Blvd.
“Investors remain bullish on grocery-anchored shopping centers because they provide many vital goods and services,” said Marko Buljan, vice president of TayCon Real Estate.
In addition to the anchor Nob Hill Foods store, other merchants in the center include Los Gatos Cafe Uptown, Una Mas Mexican Grill, PostalAnnex and Baskin-Robbins ice cream.
“The shopping center provides the local community with a diverse mix of tenants that will meet their everyday shopping and dining needs,” Levin said.
San Francisco-based Prado Group obtained a $21 million loan from First Republic Bank at the time of the purchase, the county documents show.
“Prado Group is a privately held real estate investment and development company with a primary focus on urban residential, retail, office, and mixed-use properties,” the company states on its website.
One shopping center that appears to bear similarities to the just-bought El Gato Village is a retail site at 3250 Lakeshore Ave. in Oakland. This East Bay center is anchored by Trader Joe’s.
Prado Group said it became interested in the Oakland retail center because the developer was alarmed that a series of short-term leases might create too much churn and cause merchants to exit the Lakeshore neighborhood.
“Currently, Prado is in conversation with 3250 Lakeshore’s tenants, exploring ways to blend and extend their leases and preserve the operation of this community retail space,” Prado Group stated on its website.
The company’s featured properties typically point to transformations of existing sites, often in subtle ways.
“We seek out, invest in, and develop for the positive evolution of the built environment,” Prado Group stated on its website.
The occupancy rate in the center is 97% and the brokers in the deal believe the Los Gatos retail complex is poised to retain a high occupancy level.
“In land-constrained markets like Los Gatos, building more grocery-anchored shopping centers is just not possible, which we anticipate will continue to drive growth to this asset,” Buljan said.
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