2021 will go down in the books as one of the best years in real estate and for Michael A. Pollack Real Estate Investments it has also meant the sale of five Valley shopping centers, many of which had been in his portfolio since the early 1990’s.
The sales, which all occurred in the fourth quarter of 2021 include the following.
Pollack sold his Trailside Center located on Main Street in Mesa, Arizona. He owned the center since 1994 and sold it for $2.4 million a few months ago. Like most of the shopping centers he has purchased over the years, the Pollack Investments owner completed a full interior and exterior remodel and brought the center to 95% occupancy or greater before selling it 27 years later.
Across The Valley of the Sun, Pollack sold his Tower Plaza on Cave Creek Rd. in Phoenix for $2.4 million in the last two months. Similarly, he had owned Tower Plaza since 1995 and completed an entire renovation inside and out after purchasing it.
Pollack also sold his Olive Plaza located at 67th Avenue and Olive in Peoria, Arizona. The 31,700-square-foot center sold for $4.6 million. He purchased that center in 2003 and brought the center to near 100% occupancy during his ownership.
Undoubtedly, the highest profile sale for 2021 was Pollack’s Apache Central Center, which sold to the City of Tempe, Arizona for $10.6 million and closed last Wednesday. Pollack has owned the project since 1999. With more than 44,000-square-feet, Pollack says the City of Tempe will redevelop the property into a mixed-use center to provide affordable housing and retail.
Pollack’s biggest sale of 2021 was Lindsay Marketplace off Broadway and Lindsay in Mesa, Arizona.
The 86,000-square-foot center sold for $11.2 million and closed last Tuesday. The Pollack Investments owner purchased Lindsay Marketplace in 1993. While the center was designed ahead of its time, the real estate re-developer finished building out the center and eventually renovated the interior.
“These were all opportunistic buys. We were able to get a great deal on all these centers when we purchased them back in the early 1990’s through the early 2000’s. Then we went to work doing what we do best. We renovated them inside and out, and then held onto the centers for many years bringing the occupancy levels up to almost 100-percent and giving the communities back a center that they could be proud of for many years to come,” said Pollack.
Like most of his sales, Pollack says he always leaves money on the table for the next owner but it was time to sell. Pollack says he hasn’t seen occupancies and values this high in 15 years.
“This has been the best year we’ve seen in commercial real estate since 2006 and 2007,” said Pollack. “We sold these properties at precisely the best time in the market.”
Pollack says his focus now turns to his existing portfolio which consists of owning and operating more than 3 million-square-feet of shopping centers and industrial parks in Arizona and California. He says there are no current projects available that he wants to buy right now but that’s okay. Pollack, like many real estate investors and developers, is waiting to see what the feds do and how the tax laws and codes will be structured in the coming years.
His Mesa-based company is also closing out one of the busiest years when it comes to leasing. In 2021, Pollack Investments set new internal records for leases and renewals.
“This year alone on renewals and new leases I signed 750,000-square-feet of leases,” Pollack said. “We haven’t done anything close to that since 2006.”
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