ATLANTA — Buford Highway's Plaza Fiesta sold for more than twice as much as it did 16 years ago.
11Alive partners at the Atlanta Business Chronicle report that Plaza Fiesta has been sold to Asana Partners, known for investing in landmark community spaces.
Asana Partners, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, paid $85.6 million to acquire the 32-acre retail destination, which includes a 343,750-square-foot indoor mall and two free-standing pad sites, according to DeKalb County property deeds. A QT gas station and CVS convenience store sit on the pad sites.
The property is valued at $46.8 million, according to the DeKalb County tax assessor's office. It last sold for nearly $42.3 million in 2006 to Dallas-based real estate investment firm Sarofim Realty Advisors Sarofim.
Atlanta Business Chronicle first reported on the transaction last week, which closed during a slow period for real estate deal activity in Atlanta. Federal interest rates are rising, lenders are pulling back from the market and companies are unsure of their long-term real estate needs.
But grocery-anchored retail centers offer some of the best risk-adjusted returns in commercial real estate, according to a report from CBRE Group Inc. When Plaza Fiesta went on the market, CBRE retail partner Kevin Hurley described it as a "cash flow machine" in a LinkedIn post.
Plaza Fiesta is the latest investment Asana has made in the city over the past several years. Asana has added landmark properties like Krog Street Market, the Brickworks office complex in West Midtown and a former Coca-Cola bottling facility in Old Fourth Ward to its portfolio, among many others. This is the first indoor shopping mall the company has acquired in Atlanta, but not the first retail investment it has made. Asana acquired the Plaza on Ponce shopping center in 2017, along with other standalone storefronts over the years.