Chapel Hill, North Carolina – 2011 Joint Venture with Argus Development Group and BCP Rams Plaza Project Sold to Austin Sumner Properties for $21.55m
Partners
Argus Development Group
Bank
Arbor – $10,000,000 (Acquisition Loan)
Property Information
Rams Plaza is a 14 acre, 113,000 square foot neighborhood shopping center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, located two miles from UNC. Rams Plaza is 96% leased and anchored by Food Lion and CVS. Other current tenants include: Bailey’s Pub and Grill, Tire King, Tuesday Morning, Super Cuts, Bouncing Bulldogs, Dance Design, Eclipse Tanning, Jean Woods, DDS, Ladies Fitness & Wellness, Logen Shipping & Mailboxes, Simply Nails, The North Carolina Family Doctor and The Better Sleep Store.
The Kalikow Group has sold Rams Plaza Shopping Center, in Chapel Hill, NC, for $21,55 million, after a five-and-a-half year renovation and tenant upgrade campaign on the property.
Kalikow is a member of Rams Plaza Associates, along with Breakers Capital Partners and Argus Development, which purchased the plaza in 2011 for $13.25 million in a joint venture partnership. The buyer is Austin Sumner Properties, located in Athens, GA.
The 113,000 s/f Rams Plaza shopping center is near the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill campus, with its more than 30,000 students, staff and faculty. It is anchored by a Food Lion grocery store and a newly-constructed CVS Pharmacy. Other national chains include Pizza Hut, Mathnasium, ABC Spirits, Brain Balance, Sola Salons and Tire King.
“We’re very happy to have made the significant capital and tenant improvements that helped to drive the value of the property to its final selling price,” said Greg Kalikow, VP for Kalikow Group. “We and our JV partners always saw great potential in the property and feel we’ve executed well on our vision and our plan.”
Kalikow Joint Venture Snaps Up Coveted Chapel Hill Shopping Center
By Jennifer LeClaire
CHAPEL HILL, NC — A joint venture led by the The Kalikow Group acquired a 113,000‐square‐foot grocery‐anchored shopping center. Its newly formed joint venture entity dubbed KEP Rams Plaza paid $13.25 million for Rams Plaza Shopping Center.
Argus Properties is a joint venture partner in the acquisition through its Argus Rams Plaza subsidiary. BCP Rams Plaza, a Florida limited liability, is the third member of the joint venture acquisition team. Retail Strategies is the leasing agent for Rams Plaza.
Greg Kalikow, vice president of The Kalikow Group, tells GlobeSt.com the joint venture plans to renovate of the 30‐year‐old shopping center. The trio plans to spend at least $1.5 million on the property’s façade, as well as to make improvements to the overall site and tenant spaces. The goal is to increase net operating income by bringing rents closer to market average.
“We plan to maximize the value of the currently vacant outparcel of land by selling or leasing to a new tenant‐retailer,” Kalikow says. “The vacant parcel will support approximately 13,500 square feet of new commercial space.”
Even without the renovations, the asset is performing well. Anchored by Food Lion and CVS Pharmacy, Rams Plaza is 95% occupied. The shopping center is located just off Highway 15/501 in Chapel Hill, a prestigious submarket in the Raleigh Durham MSA. That location puts Rams Plaza Shopping Center just minutes away from the University of North Carolina‐Chapel Hill campus, with its more than 30,000 students, staff and faculty.
Indeed, the Rams Plaza location boasts strong demographics, with 58,000 permanent residents located within a three‐mile radius, 73% of whom are college graduates, according to the joint venture’s research. The average household income in the area is $84,600.
“Retailers must actively try to get into Chapel Hill,” Kalikow says. “The retail space sells itself. There continues to be insurmountable barriers to entry in the Chapel Hill area for commercial developers and retailers, which leads to overwhelming demand to be in the area due to the limited supply.”
