A sprawling retail center in Aurora has a new owner.
San Diego-based Tourmaline Capital purchased the 360,000-square-foot Aurora City Place, located just to the east of I-225 and south of E. Ellsworth Avenue, for $58 million, or $161 a foot.
“We executed our plan on lease-up, took it to the market, went through a competitive process and got what we needed to get the sale, which allows us to hit our returns for our investors,” said Lloyd Sova, vice president of development and acquisitions for PREP Property Group.
PREP purchased the site in February 2020 for $51.4 million, according to public records. A month later, the pandemic struck.
“Our biggest thing was communication, working with them and working with us to get through it. I know it sounds simple, but that was the approach, communicating with the tenants,” he said.
The complex is situated on 42 acres, with some of the property stretching down to Alameda Avenue, just north of the Aurora Town Center mall. Much of the land is surface parking lots. Tenants include Michaels, PetSmart and FiveBelow.
PREP bought the property when it was 84 percent occupied and sold it with an improved 95 percent occupancy. It was their only Colorado investment. The Cincinnati firm primarily invests in retail-oriented real estate, aiming to make properties more valuable by decreasing the vacancy rate or, at times, by building apartments onsite.
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Originally Published: August 7, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.
