Bashas'/Wal-Mart Plaza sold

GREEN VALLEY--The Bashas'/ Wal-Mart shopping center has been sold to Tucson investors who over time hope to upgrade it to blend in with the SuperCenter planned next door, a real estate agent said.

Kirk Costich, broker with Southern Arizona Real Estate Partners, said the deal closed on Tuesday and he has not had time to contact the new owners about releasing much information about their plans to news media. He said he hoped to do so after the holidays.

Costich said the new owners have other commercial property, see this acquisition as a long-term investment, and do not plan immediate or radical changes.

"They're very excited. They want to do a concept so that it looks new. It will interconnect with the new Wal-Mart (SuperCenter) and it will be like one giant center" to shoppers," he said.

"They want to kind of upgrade the center. It will will have more things for the residents of Green Valley and Sahuarita," Costich said.

The new owners will take over the existing Wal-Mart building when the SuperCenter opens, probably in early- to mid-2006, and they hope to find a big box tenant to move in, but if they cannot find one large retailer, such as a PetSmart or an Office Max, they are prepared to divide the space and seek smaller tenants. The center currently has 2,800 square feet of vacant space, Costich said.

Costich said the former owner is Thundercloud, better known as Mike Silb of MAS Properties in Tucson.

The owners expect the Bashas' to remain in operation as a grocery store even when the SuperCenter opens with its discount grocery operation, and that many shoppers will visit both stores, Costich said.

The SuperCenter will be built just to the northeast of the existing Wal-Mart, and a related retail center called Madera Marketplace is being developed next to the SuperCenter by Diamond Ventures and Evergreen Devco of Phoenix.

The new owners of the Bashas'/Wal-Mart plaza view the combined shopping area as a power center that will draw shoppers from a large region and that eventually will benefit from the expansion of the Duval Mine Road overpass at I-19, Costich said.

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