A sprawling San Antonio shopping center that’s undergone a retail renaissance over the past year has officially changed hands this week. A massive international commercial property player holding the deed of a few big shopping destinations in town has passed the buck to a massive Houston private equity firm.
For a long time, Park North Shopping Center felt like an oversized strip mall. It was a place to run errands, see a movie and nab a bite at a chain spot. But in recent years, under the ownership of Sterling Organization, less glamorous leases have run out and replaced with trampoline parks and eateries. Essentially, they’ve turned the place into its own entertainment district where families can spend hours on end.
But just as that process was coming full circle and Sterling Organization was on the heels of a decade of ownership (they bought Park North back in 2016), the company sold the property for a whopping $115 million. According to a report from the San Antonio Express-News, it’s Dhanani Private Equity Group that nabbed the booming business center.
“Our investment in Park North Shopping Center reflects our commitment to identifying and improving well-located shopping centers in infill locations of major markets. We are gratified by the returns our team was able to provide to our fund-investor partners at Park North,” Sterling Organization Principal Jordan Fried said in a statement.
Another principal at Sterling, Bob Dake, says the company managed to send occupancy rates at Park North soaring in its tenure as the shopping center’s stewards. That number reportedly climbed from 73% when Sterling bought the place in 2016 to 93% today. Just this year alone, several exciting additions were announced, including a new Ross Dress for Less, Dollar Tree, Outlaw Pickleball, PINSTACK bowling and Texas’ second Torko Sports site.
The Sterling Organization still has a hand in San Antonio, though, for now. The company snatched up the Village at Stone Oak and the Thousand Oaks Shopping Center in the past two years.