Shopping plaza in North Olmsted sells for $4.45 million

Bentley Coe Plaza, a neighborhood shopping center on Lorain Road in North Olmsted, has changed hands in a $4.45 million sale, according to Cuyahoga County land records, after the Florida-based seller repositioned the property.

The new owner, Bentley Coe LLC of Rocky River, acquired the property Nov. 17 from an affiliate of Timber Development of Longwood, Florida, which had bought plaza in 2018 for $2.8 million.

Timber, which the CoStar online real estate data provider said has a portfolio of more than a dozen retail properties in 13 states, worked for its gains.

Kyle Hartung, director of investment sales at the Goodman Real Estate Services Group LLC of Lyndhurst, said the seller lost a Murray’s Auto Parts location shortly after buying the center but refurbished the space as a home for multiple tenants. As a result, more than 30% of the center is devoted to food-oriented tenants, from a new Chinese restaurant called Imperial Garden and local pizza chain Danny Boy’s to a Subway store.

Timber also updated the building’s facade. The center benefits from a simple, straight design “with no corners and dead space,” Hartung said, which means all the center’s selling space has highly visible Lorain frontage.

“We had dozens of serious investors looking at the property,” Hartung said, which is typical for a smaller shopping center in a strong retail area. “They usually sell fast. This shows that although the investment sales market has slowed with interest rate increases, they haven’t killed the market.”

The plaza has almost 37,000 square feet of selling space and sits on a 3.8-acre site. It dates from 1989. Bentley Coe LLC is its third owner.

A spokesperson for Bentley Coe declined comment on the purchase.

Timber did not return a phone call to its office.