O&S Holdings Sells 603 KSF Mixed-Use Bridge Street Town Centre in Alabama

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Five years after developing Bridge Street Town Centre as part of the mixed-use Bridge Street development in Huntsville, Ala., O&S Holdings has sold the 600,000-square-foot lifestyle center to Miller Capital Advisory.

Carrying the address of 340 The Bridge St., the multi-structure Bridge Street shopping destination sits within the 4,000-acre Cummings Research Park. Cummings’ position as the second largest research park in the country has provided a helping hand in the center’s success, as have the remaining components of the mixed-use property, which includes the six-story, approximately 150,000-square-foot The Office at Bridge Street tower and a 210-room Westin Huntsville hotel topped by 74 premier residential units.

“The vision behind Bridge Street was to create a dynamic shopping, dining and entertainment experience unlike any other in the community,” said Doug Badia, executive vice president with O&S Holdings. “The community and business partners at Bridge Street have embraced this vision and elevated Bridge Street Town Centre to one of the premier mixed-use developments in the Southeast.”

Huntsville may not be high on the retail radar, but the market is on an upswing. The city closed 2011 with a vacancy rate of 9.9 percent — the lowest since 2007 — and power centers fared even better with a vacancy rate of 9.3 percent, according to a report by commercial real estate services firm Graham & Co. “The outlook for retail real estate indicates a healthy 2012.”

On a national level, investors continue to compete for top-notch assets in top-tier markets but interest in premier properties in tertiary markets appears to be on the rise. Last week, Hull Storey Gibson Cos. L.L.C. announced the acquisition of the 434,300-square-foot Liberty Fair Mall in Martinsville, Va. And in May, Glimcher Realty Trust purchased One Nineteen, a 165,000-square-foot center in Leawood, Kans., for $67.5 million; and CBL & Associates Properties bought the 623,000-square-foot Dakota Mall in Minot, N.D., for $91.5 million.