Jamestown Acquires Retail/Office Portfolio in Downtown San Luis Obispo, Calif.

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

Jamestown, an Atlanta-based national real estate investment and management firm, has acquired more than 200,000 square feet of retail and office space in downtown San Luis Obispo, Calif., from Copeland Properties, for a $50.5 million investment in its Premier Property Fund.

Copeland will continue to manage the properties, which consist of 86 percent retail and 14 percent office space. The retail assets consist of seven properties in the downtown area bounded by Chorro, Oso, Monterey and Marsh streets and totals about 195,000 square feet. The most notable properties in the retail portion of the portfolio are Court Street Center and Downtown Centre.

Tenants include Barnes & Noble, Urban Outfitters, Pottery Barn, Abercrombie & Fitch, Express, Gap, Banana Republic, Victoria’s Secret and Apple.

The portfolio has about 25,000 square feet of retail space available.

“This acquisition is part of Jamestown’s strategy to acquire street-level retail in vibrant markets with a strong sense of community,” Michael Phillips, Jamestown COO, said in a news release. “Downtown San Luis Obispo is a pedestrian friendly, desirable shopping and recreational destination with a unique small-town feel.”

Jamestown, which has assets in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York City, where they own Chelsea Markets and One Times Square among other high-profile properties.

In California, Jamestown owns three other properties, all in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Alameda South Shore Center, a 594,000-square-foot open-air shopping center in the East Bay community of Alameda. The firm also owns a mixed-use property in San Francisco with two buildings – 22 Fourth St. and 801 Market – and 799 Market St., a 142,000-square-foot urban retail and technology-oriented office building.

Jamestown, which has made about $8 billion in strategic investments since its founding in 1983, recently created a Latin American division. The firm opened offices in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Bogota, Colombia, and planned to work with local partners to invest in various real estate assets that will serve the region’s growing middle class.

Copeland is continuing to develop its own project in downtown San Luis Obispo. Chinatown will be comprised of 46,140 square feet of retail space, 32 residential units and a 76-room hotel, according to SanLuisObispo.com.