Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors, a nationally recognized real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in retail property sales, announced that the firm arranged the sale of a 2021-new construction, single-tenant The Habit Burger Grill Drive-Thru at the newly developed Monterey Crossing shopping center at the Interstate 10 and Monterey Avenue interchange in Palm Desert, California. The sale price was $4.57 million. This transaction marks the fourth retail pad building Hanley Investment Group has sold at Monterey Crossing, totaling a combined 17,060 square feet and approximately $20.3 million.
Hanley Investment Group’s Executive Vice Presidents Bill Asher and Jeff Lefko represented the developer and seller, Fountainhead Development of Newport Beach, California, in all four retail transactions. John Costa, David Fults and Brian McLoughlin of Voit Retail Estate Services in Los Angeles represented the buyer of The Habit Burger Grill Drive-Thru, a private investor based in Southern California. Previous sales included two brand new, single-tenant ground leased pads to Chick-fil-A Drive-Thru and Quick Quack Car Wash, along with a two-tenant pad building occupied by AT&T and Spectrum. All four properties were sold to four separate buyers at record-low cap rates.
The single-tenant net-leased investment occupied by a new, 2,700-square-foot Habit Burger Grill is situated on 0.91 acres at 73320 Dinah Shore Drive in Palm Desert. According to Asher, “We created a competitive bidding process that helped secure a 1031 exchange buyer at 100 percent of the asking price,” said Asher. “The sale represented a record-low cap rate for a single-tenant Habit Burger Grill nationwide.”
The Habit Burger Grill is known for its signature Charburgers and fast-casual dining experience, notes Asher. The menu also includes sandwiches, fresh salads, a variety of sides and more.
In March of 2020, Yum! Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, finalized the purchase of the Southern California-based burger chain for around $375 million. Today, Habit Burger currently has 340 locations globally with the majority of its locations in California.
“The new Habit Burger Grill’s Palm Desert location incorporates indoor dining, patio dining and drive-thru to maximize sales,” says Asher. “The pandemic certainly shined a very bright light on the impact of having a drive-thru. Approximately 70 percent of quick-serve restaurant sales were generated through a drive-thru and sales were approximately 50 percent greater in locations that had a drive-thru. We expect to see more [quick-service restaurants] with drive-thrus as companies roll out their prototypes across the U.S.”
Monterey Crossing is strategically located at the signalized intersection of Monterey Avenue and Interstate 10 freeway, one of the most centrally located and heavily visited interchanges (110,000 cars per day) in the Desert Cities area of Southern California and a primary east/west arterial connecting to Los Angeles to San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Phoenix, Arizona. Monterey Avenue (37,000 cars per day) is the major north/south connector between the freeway, resorts and high-income communities of Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City.
Fountainhead is currently developing additional single-tenant pads and multi-tenant buildings in the first phase of the project in addition to a second phase of the shopping center, which combined will ultimately feature 17 acres of best-in-class retail.
Monterey Crossing also benefits from freeway-visible pylon signage and is the first Palm Desert center to be approved for freeway signage, according to Asher.
National tenants located at the intersection of Monterey Avenue and Interstate 10 include Costco, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Sam’s Club, Walmart, 99 Cents Only, Ashley HomeStore, JOANN Fabrics and Crafts, PetSmart and Regal Cinemas.
Palm Desert is the geographic center of the Coachella Valley, a fast-growing region of Southern California. Within a three-mile radius of Monterey Crossing, the population increased by 53 percent between 2000 and 2020 and is projected to grow an additional 7.4 percent by 2025. The average household income is currently $106,000. There are more than 4,500 new residential units planned or under construction within a 2.5-mile radius of Monterey Crossing.
“In 2022, we anticipate developers and shopping center owners will continue to see the accretive value of implementing a break-up sale strategy to capitalize on the high demand for single-tenant and multi-tenant retail pad product at premium pricing,” says Asher.
Hanley Investment Group has sold more than $407 million in retail properties in the Inland Empire in the last 36 months.