August 03, 2015
Boyle Fund Buys Alabama Retail Center
By: Sarah Baker
Memphis Daily News
Midsouth Capital Fund I LLC – a fund formed by Memphis-based Boyle Investment Co. in late 2010 – has made its first acquisition in central Alabama with the $13.4 million purchase of Riverchase Village shopping center in Birmingham from Phillips Edison.
The Midsouth Capital Fund was formed to target approximately $100 million in acquisition opportunities throughout the Mid-South, including Tennessee, Kentucky, north and central Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, with a special focus on Memphis and Nashville.
The acquisition of Riverchase Village marks the third Midsouth Capital Fund transaction.
Current initial capital committed stands at $45 million, with Boyle and related entities contributing more than $10 million of the total. The Midsouth Capital Fund focuses on strategically located retail and office assets in submarkets within the above range of geographic target areas.
Riverchase Village is a 178,510-square-foot shopping center on 15.8 acres in the Hoover submarket of Birmingham. Riverchase Village is currently 98 percent leased and includes major retailers such as Best Buy, Bruno’s Supermarket and PetSmart.
“Riverchase Village represents an excellent, long-term, strategic investment for the Midsouth Capital Fund in the Birmingham market, and will hopefully be the first of many in that region for both Boyle and the fund,” executive manager of Boyle Nashville LLC Phil Fawcett said in a release. “We consider Hoover to be a very dynamic submarket because it is the retail hub of Birmingham and offers a key location with strong demographics and quality anchor tenants.”
Boyle has hired Retail Specialists Inc., a commercial real estate company with offices in Birmingham and New Orleans, to handle the leasing and management of the shopping center. Retail Specialists focuses on retail tenant representation, retail project leasing, retail brokerage and retail property management.
The Midsouth Capital Fund continues to target high-grade real estate and seek sellers who are looking for greater liquidity. To date, the Midsouth Capital Fund has acquired 380,000 square feet of retail space and 43,000 square feet of office space.
Its first acquisition was made in January in the Nashville region with the purchase of a 43,000-square-foot office building in Goodlettsville for $2.17 million. Shortly thereafter, the Midsouth Capital Fund acquired the 200,000-square-foot, mixed-use Germantown Village Square for $14 million.
Founded in 1933, Boyle leases and manages more than 1 million square feet of retail space and almost 2 million square feet of office space in the greater Memphis area. The Midsouth Capital Funds give Boyle a chance to diversify its portfolio and deploy capital, Boyle executive vice president Mark Halperin told The Daily News earlier this year.
But Boyle isn’t as concerned with achieving portfolio goals as it is with taking advantage of market devaluation and investing accordingly.
“Just like we have for the last 78 years, we will operate very carefully, conservatively, try to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves, and do our very best to preserve cash,” Halperin said. “Our goal is to continue being good stewards of our capital and taking great care of all the tenants we’ve already got in our different investment properties.”
Upcoming Boyle projects in Middle Tennessee include 5000 and 5005 Meridian, two office properties totaling 190,000 square feet, and 995 Meridian, a 7,000-square-foot retail building, all of which are currently under construction at the Meridian Cool Springs development in Franklin.
Boyle also has commenced construction on Berry Farms, a 600-acre mixed-use community in Franklin.