Starbucks center acquired in largest ever commercial sale on Coast Village Road

Santa Barbara, CA, 4/7/14 – A prime piece of high visibility Montecito real estate has traded in a $14.5 Million off-market deal, marking the largest sale of commercial property ever on Coast Village Road.

Perhaps just as noteworthy is that one of the buyers is making her first investment in commercial real estate.

Radius Commercial Real Estate & Investments recently announced the sale of the 13,800-square-foot building located at 1046 Coast Village Rd. The retail center includes tenants Starbucks, Vons Pharmacy, Blenders in the Grass and Sakana Sushi Bar and Japanese restaurant, all of whom hold long term leases.

New owners Deborah and James Longo—who recently purchased a second home in Montecito—worked with Radius brokers Bob Tuler, Gene Deering and Paul Gamberdella to acquire the property. Fellow Radius brokers Steve Brown and Austin Herlihy represented the seller in the transaction.

“This is truly a prize for Deborah and James. She recently sold a prominent business on the Central Coast and determined market conditions in the Santa Barbara commercial real estate space were too good to pass up,” said Tuler.

“From our perspective, it’s not surprising given where the industry has come in the past couple of years, particularly in this city,” added Brown, who along with Herlihy was a part of two other recent sales of high profile Santa Barbara properties including the Marshalls building on State Street and the former Bekins building in the Funk Zone, now leased by sound system giant Sonos.

“Competition is fierce for well-located inventory in Santa Barbara which is quite simply hard to come by right now. Buyers from all across the country, even first time investors like Ms. Longo who may not be your traditional commercial investors, all have their eye on Santa Barbara,” Brown said. “You simply can’t ignore the long-term value of commercial property.”

According to Tuler, the Deborah Longo had very specific requirements. “She knew exactly what she was looking for. She wanted a prime piece of real estate on State Street or Coast Village Road, preferably a boutique retail center with exceptional parking and visibility.”

Tuler said the Longos plans to invest in additional upgrades to the building. Starbucks recently completed its own $350,000 renovation of their space which enjoys frontage on Coast Village Road.

“I know retail centers like this don’t come along very often but Bob dug up this opportunity and navigated a very complex deal to secure it for us,” said Deborah Longo. “This is a first class property in a tremendous location. I’m excited about enhancing and bringing even more value to the property to make it one of the true gems of Montecito.”