Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors, a nationally recognized real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in retail property sales, announced today that the firm arranged the sale of a brand-new construction, single-tenant property occupied by a Taco Bell Drive-Thru in Corona, California. The sale price was $2.9 million for the new 20-year absolute triple-net ground lease.
Hanley Investment Group’s Executive Vice Presidents Bill Asher and Jeff Lefko represented the seller and developer, Evergreen Development. Spanning the last 48 years, Evergreen is a national retail and multi-family development company with a heavy emphasis on developing projects in California, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. The buyer, a private investor based in Los Angeles County, was represented by David Aschkenasy at Commercial Asset Group in Los Angeles.
“We generated multiple competitive and qualified offers and procured a Southern California-based all-cash 1031 exchange buyer,” Asher said. “We negotiated a quick 14-day due diligence period and closed escrow before the tenant opened for business.”
Asher noted the tenant, Alvarado Restaurant Nation, operates more than 200 Yum! Brand restaurants across multiple states and has been in operation for nearly 40 years.
“We achieved premium pricing for the sale of the property that was more reflective of a Taco Bell investment leased by corporate rather than a franchisee.”
Yum! Brands operates over 54,000 locations in 155 countries and territories and is the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and The Habit Burger Grill. Taco Bell is the nation’s leading Mexican-inspired quick-service restaurant with over 8,200 locations worldwide. In 2022, Taco Bell opened 496 new restaurants in 24 countries. In the U.S., Taco Bell’s system sales grew by 10%. U.S. same-store sales grew by 11% in Q4 2022.
The single-tenant 2,049-square-foot Taco Bell is located on 0.94 acres at 8602 Cajalco Road in Corona, near the signalized intersection of Temescal Canyon Road and Cajalco Road (37,000+ cars per day). Adjacent tenants include a Circle K convenience store with a gas station and car wash and a future Popeyes Drive-Thru scheduled to be built and open later this year. The property is also surrounded by new and existing residential communities with over 5,400 homes.
The property is situated a half-mile east of the Interstate 15 on/off ramps (176,700 cars per day) and across the street from Crossings at Corona, one of the Inland Empire’s top-performing regional power and entertainment centers with 7.5 million annual visitors and one of the top 13% most visited power centers in the country, according to Placer.ai.
“The Taco Bell property is strategically located in South Corona’s dominant regional retail corridor, adjacent to the Crossings at Corona,” Asher said. “The property benefits from a growing, affluent trade area with over 139,000 people within a five-mile radius and an average household income over $153,000 within a three-mile radius.”
The city of Corona is part of the Inland Empire, one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. The Inland Empire has grown by 78% in the past 30 years.
According to Asher, “We typically implement a pre-sale marketing process prior to the completion of construction to help the seller retain maximum value for the development. For many historical transactions, we have been able to procure buyers for net-leased assets often before the buildings are completed and negotiate closings before the tenants have finished their buildout and are open for business. We expect investor demand to remain steady and pricing stable for well-located single-tenant net-retail investments leased to national corporate quick-service restaurant (QSR) drive-thru tenants.”