A shopping center tucked about 22 miles north of downtown Atlanta has changed hands for the first time in 15 years, fetching a sale price that brokers say is the highest for a retail property in the area in four years. Sweet Apple Village in Roswell, Georgia, was nearly fully leased when it traded hands this week, with tenants ranging from a chiropractor's office to a kids' gym.
The sale was reported at $20.3 million, according to Shopping Center Business, though Connect CRE put the figure at $20.25 million. Commercial real estate firm Matthews brokered the deal, sourcing SouthCoast as the buyer for the property, which had been held by Ziff Real Estate Partners. Outlets also differ on the center's exact footprint: Shopping Center Business describes it as 62,390 square feet, Connect CRE calls it a 66,000-square-foot retail center, REBusinessOnline pegs it at 62,000 square feet, and Matthews itself lists 62,546 square feet in its own account of the deal.
Whatever the precise size, the property at 12030 Etris Road was in strong shape heading into the sale. Shopping Center Business reports Sweet Apple Village was 98.2 percent leased at the time of sale, with no single tenant occupying more than 12 percent of the total gross leasable area, per Connect CRE.
A Tenant Mix Built for Everyday Errands
The center's roster reads like a neighborhood checklist rather than a mall directory. Shopping Center Business lists tenants including Basuri Indian Restaurant, Marco's Pizza, Sushi Mori, PT Solutions Physical Therapy, Precision Chiropractic, My Gym and Salon Bellezza as part of the mix at Sweet Apple Village.
That diversified, unanchored format appears to have been part of the appeal to investors. According to Matthews, the firm marketed the property to many of the most active professional buyers of unanchored retail, and multiple sophisticated investors participated in the process before SouthCoast emerged as the buyer.
Who Gets Credit for the Deal
Shopping Center Business reports that Jeff Enck, Kyle Stonis, Pierce Mayson and Boris Shilkrot of Matthews represented the seller in the transaction. Connect CRE, however, describes the same four brokers as having represented both the seller and the buyer. The two outlets do not reconcile that difference.
A Long Wait Pays Off
The sale closes out a long chapter of stability for the property. Sweet Apple Village had not been offered for sale in roughly 15 years, Matthews notes, and the transaction marked the highest retail sales price in the Roswell/Alpharetta submarket in four years, per Shopping Center Business's reporting — a figure Connect CRE separately corroborates for the same submarket and timeframe.
Ziff Real Estate Partners, the prior owner, had held the property since picking it up in 2011. Connect CRE reports Ziff paid $6.25 million for the center that year, a figure that lines up with REBusinessOnline's account of a prior $6.25 million sale, which identified Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based Ziff Properties as the buyer and BB&T Bank's REO department as the seller at the time. During its long hold, Connect CRE notes, Ziff enacted a value-add initiative throughout its ownership — groundwork that appears to have helped set up this week's record-setting exit.
