Inland Empire Lifestyle Center Commands $54M

SRS Real Estate Partners has arranged the sale of New Haven Marketplace, a new lifestyle center in Southern California’s Inland Empire, on behalf of the developer, Frontier Real Estate Investments. A California-based family office acquired the 95,000-square-foot property, which sits in the heart of the 8,000-acre Ontario Ranch master-planned community in the city of Ontario, Calif. The $54 million price tag included the assumption of existing debt.

New Haven Marketplace. Image courtesy of SRS Real Estate Partners

Senior Vice President Pat Kent and Senior Associate Parker Walter of SRS’s Investment Properties Group represented Frontier in the transaction, while Glenn Rudy of Newmark stood in for the buyer. SRS welcomed a bevy of offers from investors eager to add New Haven Marketplace to their portfolio. “The property is in a great location and is a newly built, grocery-anchored shopping center in Southern California. It is very rare that investors have the opportunity to acquire assets like this,” Walter told Commercial Property Executive.

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Located on a 10.6-acre site at 3420 E. Ontario Ranch Road, New Haven Marketplace made its debut in 2020, with a 45,000-square-foot Stater Bros. market as its anchor tenant. The Bickel Group Architecture-designed property features a farmhouse style with abundant landscaping and ample communal spaces. The asset holds the distinction of being the first retail center in Ontario Ranch.

Retail the right way

Frontier developed New Haven Marketplace in partnership with CalSTRS and Brookfield Residential, which has spearheaded the delivery of a ready-made audience for the retail destination with the programming of thousands of single-family homes and apartment units at Ontario Ranch. Today, the New Haven Marketplace is 100 percent leased to a diverse group of tenants that includes a host of eateries, Chase Bank, YogaSix yoga studio and market hall Rodeo X, which includes the Brew Haven Brewery.

Grocery anchor, prime location, unique tenancy, Class A status—all of these factors translated into a sale price of approximately $568 per square foot for New Haven Marketplace. The average retail property sale price in the Inland Empire was $302 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to a report by Kidder Mathews.

“The pricing and demand for high-quality real estate remain strong in uncertain times,” Walter said. “We expect a flight to quality from investors to assets such as New Haven Marketplace while pricing for assets in tertiary locations and older product will be negatively affected pricewise.”