South Florida investors sell off Walmart Neighborhood Market-anchored center in Largo
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 18, 2015

Sterling Organization has sold off a Largo shopping center for $18.9 million.

The Palm Beach-based company said Monday that Pine Tree Commercial Realty of Chicago had purchased the 99,054-square-foot Barclay Square, which is at 13817 Walsingham Road and anchored by a Walmart Neighborhood Market. The price breaks down to $190 per square foot.

Sterling paid $10.8 million, or $109 per square foot, for the property in 2012. The group took the center's occupancy from 80 percent to 98 percent in its three years of ownership.

"We are obviously very pleased with the performance of the Barclay Square transaction, which was the first realization in our Sterling Value Add Partners fund,” Brian Kosoy, managing principal, president and CEO of Sterling Organization said in a statement. "Our entire team can be proud of their performance in what should be a deal that while conservatively levered will likely produce what we expect is a gross IRR of over 40 percent and an equity multiple of more than 2.5 times during our less than three-year ownership on behalf of our investor partners.”

The property was the second asset purchased via Sterling's value-add retail real estate investment fund, SVAP.

The center was built in 1988 and renovated in 2008.