MYSTERY INVESTOR BUYS CENTER.

Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX Real Deals

In one of the bigger deals in the Northwest Valley this year, a mystery investor has paid $9.2 million for a 3-acre retail center at the southwest corner of Chatsworth Street and Balboa Boulevard.

Longtime residents of the neighborhood remember the site as the location of a Ralphs market, which was built in 1950.

Eighteen months ago the supermarket relocated to a bigger building a few blocks away and the old site was rehabilitated.

Today it contains at 24,000-square-foot Staples, a 13,905-square-foot Walgreen's and a 2,000-square-foot El Pollo Loco.

The deal was structured as a 1031 exchange, which avoids the capital gains tax, said Greg Whitney, a senior associate at CB Richard Ellis, who helped negotiate the sale.

The buyer, a San Fernando Valley resident, sold another parcel and used the proceeds to purchase the retail center.

``We had good tenants and it generated a lot of interest and commanded a premium price,'' said Whitney, who represented the seller, Grae Ventures LLC of Los Angeles.

The CB Richard Ellis team also included Allen Young, Sam Alison and Dan Riley.

The company was also involved in the sale of the property to the former owner.

LeeAnne Sichel of TOLD Partners represented the buyer.

Notes:

--The Camarillo Village Square Shopping Center has been sold for more than $20 million, to the Donahue Scriber Realty Group of Newport Beach, says the Ventura office of CB Richard Ellis.

The 250,395-square-foot facility is on 23.8 acres at the southeast corner of Los Posas and Arneill roads.

Tenants include an Albertson's market and Rite-Aid drug store.

CB Richard Ellis brokers Phillip Kyle, Carol Schroeder and Larry Tranji represented the buyer.

The center was sold by EDM Investment of San Francisco.

--Earth is being moved.

The vacancy rate for industrial buildings of 60,000 square feet and bigger in the Valley is at 1 percent but more room is on the way.

Construction has started on the $24 million Cascades Business Park on a 19-acre site east of the Golden State Freeway between Balboa and Foothill boulevards.

Oltmans Construction Co. is the general contractor.

The project is being developed by Royal Clark, the company that built the adjacent Cascades Golf Club, for Prudential Real Estate Investors.

Oltmans is building three structures that will total 366,000 square feet of space. The project should be finished by June 1.

``Buildings in Cascades Business Park will fill a critical niche in the San Fernando Valley for Class A industrial R&D (research and development) space,'' said Barbara Emmons of CB Richard Ellis, marketing agent for the project.

Woodland Hills-based Poliquin Kellogg Design Group designed the buildings.

Farther up the freeway in the Santa Clarita Valley, work is under way on the $13 million third phase of Vista Business Park, said David Mgrublian, managing director of Investment Development Services Inc.

IDS is developing the project with Kennedy Associates Real Estate Counsel of Seattle.

``The Valencia area market continues to enjoy steady demand for large, single tenant industrial buildings,'' Mgrublian said. ``The market has not been overbuilt, and while there has been some appreciation in rents, there has not been a substantive spike.''

The park is located at 28945 N. Avenue Williams. IDS is marketing the project in conjunction with Jim Linn and Nigel Stout of Grubb & Ellis San Fernando Valley office. The new building is 206,000 square feet.