Cincinnati-based private equity firm Viking Partners has purchased an ailing but well-placed retail center in Lakeville, MN that is a stone’s throw from one of the city’s key exits off Interstate 35.
The 59,269-square-foot Timbercrest at Lakeville strip mall at 18307 Kenrick Ave. is anchored by a Marshalls store, and once was home to an OfficeMax in space that is now vacant. The center is immediately east of a SuperTarget store and sits just north of the junction between 185th Street and I-35.
Goertemoeller would not disclose the purchase price or the identity of the seller, who has been kept on as a partner and played a small part in the deal. Sales documents associated with the transaction do not appear to have been filed as yet.
Dakota County assessed the center at $4.8 million for taxes payable in 2018.
Viking has hired a local broker to assist in recruiting new tenants, though Goertemoeller did not identify them. The company plans to lease up Timbercrest and resell it after three or four years of holding, he said, and in fact may announce the arrival of a new major tenant in the coming weeks.
“We are very close on deal for the larger, 20,000-square-foot space. We’re working with a well-recognized, national tenant,” Goertemoeller said.
Beyond that, Viking is looking for lessees for two smaller spaces of about 3,000 square feet each.
The property, which was built in 2004, appears to have recently gone through foreclosure. Notice of an impending foreclosure sale was published in June 2017 in the local newspapers owned by Sun ThisWeek. On Oct. 31, 2017 it sold in a sheriff’s sale to the mortgagee, U.S. Bank, for about $6.18 million, according to Dakota County documents. The mortgagor was listed as an LLC called AVALON-TIMBERCREST III, which is tied to Plymouth-based Avalon Real Estate Group.
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In addition to Timbercrest, Avalon built three other shopping developments that are shadow-anchored by a Target store: Victory Village in Blaine, Oakdale Marketplace and Interlaken Village in Waconia.
Executives for Avalon could not be reached for comment.
