The Bond Cos. redeveloped a former car showroom to house a Whole Foods in 2007 and just sold the building to an affiliate of DDR Corp. 

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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The landmark Whole Foods near Lake Merritt in Oakland has a new owner.

The Bond Cos. redeveloped a former Cox Cadillac Showroom, at 230 Bay Place, into a 57,218-square-foot, Class A retail property in 2007 with Whole Foods (NYSE: WFM) as the sole tenant.

The seller declined to disclose the buyer or the terms of the deal, but a public records search shows that the buyer was an affliiate of DDR Corp., an Ohio-based retail investor that owns close to 460 retail centers nationwide. The 2012 assessed tax value for the building was $27.2 million.

The building brought a much-need grocery store close to Oakland’s thriving Lake Merritt and Uptown neighborhoods while retaining the historic aesthetic and character of the original structure.

“On the West Coast, there continues to be a dearth of quality retail properties on the market like Whole Foods at Bay Place, and an insatiable amount of capital,” said Nicholas Bicardo, a broker with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler who represented the seller. “This acquisition for the buyer represents a fantastic purchase of a trophy building occupied by a credit top-tier grocer with some of the strongest sales productivity in the world.”

Bond Cos. develops retail, infill, mixed-use, commercial, civic and hospitality projects. The firm has offices in Chicago and Los Angeles.

DDR already owns two other Bay Area shopping centers: Hilltop Plaza in Richmond and Van Ness Plaza in San Francisco.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/03/ddr-corp-buys-oakland-whole-foods.html