By Marlize van Romburgh Friday, February 15th, 2013

The recent sale of the property at 1046-1054 Coast Village Road capped a year of multimillion-dollar deals in Montecito.

The 13,778-square-foot retail property was sold late last year to a private, Santa Barbara-based investor for $10.2 million, according to Lee & Associates Central Coast. Tenants at the property include Starbucks, Vons Pharmacy, Blenders In the Glass, Boutique Antoinette and Occhiali Fine Eyewear.

Clarice Clark, recently named president at the Santa Barbara-based Lee & Associates office, represented the private seller. The buyer, a local investor, was represented by Austin Herlihy and Steve Brown of Radius Group Commercial Real Estate & Investments.

The brokers noted that Montecito has seen a flurry of commercial real estate dealmaking over the last year.  “Retail properties in Montecito are in high demand by investors as the supply is very limited. Montecito has excellent demographics with extremely high average household incomes,” Clark said in a statement, noting that the property is in a high-profile location adjacent to a Vons-anchored center.

The seller was looking to make a deal before the end of 2012, Herlihy told me. “It was definitely a good time to get the property sold,” he said. “It had to close by end of the year due to tax reasons, which is the reason we had such a large fourth quarter. A lot of people wanted to close by the end of the year to take advantage of lower taxes. In this case, we had to have a buyer that was quick and nimble and able to close a deal.”

Herlihy also noted that there’s been activity elsewhere on Coast Village Road, which is the main retail strip for Montecito, an enclave of the rich and famous.

Hillstone Restaurant Group, which operates about a dozen upscale restaurants in California including Rutherford Grill in Napa Valley and Gulfstream in Newport Beach, recently signed a 15-year lease for the restaurant space at the former Turk Hessellund Nursery  property at 1255 Coast Village Road. The property was purchased in late 2011 by a group of investors led by developer Alberto Valner and is being developed into a 15,923-square-foot retail, restaurant and office project that also includes two residential units. The half-acre property is the last undeveloped space on Coast Village Road.

“We’ve also leased up some of the retail in that building and the project hasn’t even been built yet,” Herlihy said.

Meanwhile, Read N’ Post said it will host a “rough ‘n ready” grand opening later this month or in early March for its new location in the Montecito Country Mart. Construction on the new Coast Village Road store is almost finished, owner Jan Hendrickson said in a statement. Read N’ Post moved from 1046 Coast Village Road, its home for more than 30 years, after losing its lease on that space in April last year. Shortly thereafter, the business moved nearby into smaller spaces in the courtyard walkway across from the Vons grocery store. The new Read N’ Post will combine the store and a U.S. Post Office into one location again.

DEALS OF THE WEEK

• The 64-unit Woodlands Apartments complex in Ventura has been sold for $8.2 million. Woodland 1 Limited sold the property at 5925 Woodland St. to an undisclosed Santa Barbara-based investor who already had a strong presence in the market, according to CBRE.

The deal closed at a 5.1 percent cap rate with new financing obtained in 30 days, CBRE said. The apartments are within walking distance of the Victoria Plaza shopping center and Buena High School and within one mile of Ventura College.

CBRE’s First Vice President, Melinda Russell, represented both the buyer and seller in the deal.

• Along with a 99-unit complex in San Pedro, Russell also negotiated the recent sale of a 15-unit coastal property in Port Hueneme. The apartment complex was purchased by an undisclosed Ventura-area investor for $2.5 million from the Karasiuk Family Trust. It was listed and on the market for less than 30 days, CBRE said, and after generating multiple offers, sold at a cap rate of 5.5 percent. According to Russell, the buyer was motivated by the potential for greater tax burdens in 2013, paid cash to the existing loan and signed a contract for an under 30-day close. The property is surrounded by single family homes and Class-A condos, she noted.

All told, Russell’s three recent apartment deals totaled more than $24 million. “We are experiencing high demand in rarely available, coastal-region apartment homes,” she said in a statement. “Our clients are pursuing listed and off-market opportunities to improve management and add significant value.”

• Contact Marlize van Romburgh at [email protected].