Fort Smith Pavilion sold to Cincinnati real estate group

The Fort Smith Pavilion, the city’s newest shopping center created by digging out the side of a hill near Interstate 540 and Phoenix Avenue, has been sold to Cincinnati-based Phillips Edison & Co.

San Antonio-based Merchants Holding Co. bought and developed the shopping complex that is now anchored by Target, Best Buy, Old Navy, and includes restaurants Cheddar’s and Longhorn Steakhouse.

Completed in November 2008, the cost to develop the Fort Smith Pavilion was estimated to be at least $40 million. Several pads remain to be developed at the site. The most recent addition was Longhorn Steakhouse, a Darden Restaurants chain that has more than 320 locations in 32 states. The Fort Smith restaurant is about 6,000 square feet, seat about 240 and provides roughly 80 full- and part-time jobs.

Although terms of the deal between Phillips and Merchants were not disclosed, the Phillips statement says the purchase was an “all cash transaction” paid for from the Phillips Edison Strategic Investment Fund. Several messages left with a Phillips spokeswoman were not returned.

"This shopping center fits right into our strategy of buying dominant retail centers anchored by leading retailers and/or lifestyle centers in markets where they have replaced the regional mall," David Birdsall, senior vice president of the strategic investment fund, said in a statement.

Phillips Edison, a retail real estate management company, controls several investment funds created from more than $600 million in investor capital. The fund that purchased the Fort Smith Pavilion was formed in 2007 with $70 million raised from 173 investors. According to the Phillips Edison website, the fund “targets distressed developments and loans to acquire retail and mixed-use assets of 150,000 square feet or more, as well as development joint ventures in strategic growth markets.”

In 2009, the fund that now owns Fort Smith Pavilion bought the 600,000-square-foot Bridgewater Falls development in Fairfield Township, Ohio.

Within all its operations, Phillips Edison owns and manages more than 240 shopping centers totaling more than 26 million square feet in 35 states.