Florida real estate company purchases second Las Vegas mall

Less than a month after it bought a foreclosed strip mall in Las Vegas, a Florida real estate firm picked up another one just a mile away.

Pebb Enterprises announced last month that it acquired Rainbow Promenade, a 228,279-square-foot retail plaza at the southwest corner of Rainbow Boulevard and Smoke Ranch Road.

The 22-acre shopping center recently underwent a $5 million renovation and is 98 percent occupied with such tenants as Hobby Lobby and Barnes & Noble, according to the news release.

Pebb did not disclose the purchase price. But property records show the plaza traded for $30.75 million and that the sale closed April 18.

That followed Pebb’s acquisition of Cheyenne Commons, a 35-acre retail center a mile up the street, for $34.35 million. That sale closed March 26, property records show.

Pebb’s back-to-back deals come amid wobbly times for brick-and-mortar retail. The industry is far from dead, but stores have closed locally and nationally amid a glut of retailers and malls and as consumers spend more time and money online at Amazon and other shopping sites.

Rainbow Promenade went into foreclosure in 2013, property records show, though it appears on strong footing today.

Eric Hochman, Pebb’s chief development officer, said the plaza’s retailers have strong sales numbers and that more than half of the tenants renewed their lease in the past 18 months.

He also cited the mall’s visibility, saying it’s in a “prime location” off U.S. Highway 95, and noted its proximity to densely populated residential areas.

Cheyenne Commons, meanwhile, was Pebb’s first acquisition in Las Vegas. When it announced the deal, it said the strip mall was 79 percent occupied.

The plaza, at the southwest corner of Rainbow Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue, was just 60 percent occupied in spring 2017 and went into foreclosure that summer.

Pebb, based in Boca Raton, Florida, says it owns and manages around 2.5 million square feet of commercial real estate around the country.

The company dealt with tragedy in November 2015 when two of its principals and five employees were killed in a plane crash in Akron, Ohio, during a business trip.

The group, flying on a chartered Hawker 700A jet, comprised nearly half the firm, according to an article on Pebb’s website. The two pilots also died in the crash.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.