Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors, a real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in retail property sales, said it has completed the sale of a single-tenant Aldi in Calexico, California. The sale price was $2,640,000 for the triple-net absolute ground lease. This transaction represents Hanley Investment Group’s 10th Aldi investment sold in the last 24 months, including the recent sale of a newly renovated single-tenant Aldi in northern Indiana near the campus of Notre Dame University.
Hanley Investment Group’s Dylan Mallory and Jeff Lefko represented the seller, a private investor based in Vero Beach, Florida. The Midwest-based buyer represented themselves in the transaction.
Located at 2450 Rockwood Avenue in Calexico, the 18,000-square-foot Aldi grocery store sits on a 1.53-acre pad at the entrance to Walmart Supercenter, which is the first Walmart location north of the Calexico/Mexicali border crossing. In addition to Walmart Supercenter, nearby adjacent retailers included Jack in the Box, T-Mobile, 7-Eleven, Panda Express, KFC and Subway.
“We procured a total of eight offers within 30 days of marketing the property,” said Mallory. “Other national real estate brokerage firms had tried unsuccessfully to sell the property.”
Calexico shares its southern border with Mexicali, the capital city of Baja California, which has a population in excess of one million people. Aldi is located approximately two miles north of the Mexicali/Calexico border crossing, which is the third busiest land port of entry in the state of California, and experiences nearly five million pedestrians crossing annually and an additional four million vehicles crossing annually carrying roughly than seven million passengers. In the summer of 2018, a $370 million expansion and renovation project began at the port.
“Single-tenant grocery chains, like Aldi, can serve essential needs and, in March, Aldi had reported that it had hired nearly 7,500 employees and is ‘continuing to hire more each day,’ including temporary positions in its stores and warehouses,” Mallory said.
“Aldi has been a model tenant for how to adapt its business model to better service customers in this time of COVID-19,” said Lefko. “Aldi offers grocery delivery and pick-up services to make it easier for customers to practice social distancing.”
Lefko said, “Aldi introduced priority shopping for emergency workers no matter when they visit. Internationally, Aldi has installed protective screens at many of their locations for both customers and employees at their checkout lanes. Additionally, Aldi has publicly recommended all customers practice contactless checkout by using Apple Pay or Android Pay. Each of these measures have helped remind prospective customers that Aldi will take innovative actions to keep customers and employees safe.”
