Las Vegas shopping plaza bought by real estate firm for $43.5M

Cannon Commercial purchased more than 214,000 square feet of space at Westland Fair, at the southeast corner of Charleston and Decatur boulevards, listing brokerage Newmark Knight Frank announced Tuesday.

The center traded for $43.5 million, property records show.

U.S. brick-and-mortar retail has been struggling as shoppers spend more time and money at Amazon and other websites. Las Vegas hasn’t been spared the industry’s woes – Sears, Macy’s and others have closed stores here in recent years – but business is far from dead, and landlords are still buying shopping plazas.

According to Colliers International’s third-quarter report for Southern Nevada, 36 shopping centers spanning nearly 2 million square feet combined were sold in the Las Vegas area this year.

Cannon’s acquisition did not include the space occupied by Westland anchors Walmart and Lowe’s. Its tenants include pet-supplies store PetSmart, arts-and-crafts retailer Michaels and Raising Cane’s fast-food restaurant, according to Newmark Knight Frank, which represented the seller, Weingarten Realty Investors.

Tyler Mateen, a principal with Cannon, pointed to Las Vegas’ population and job growth and Nevada’s low taxes as reasons for the purchase.

Plenty of people say retail is dying, he said, noting it’s “kind of a contrarian approach” to come in and buy a shopping plaza in Las Vegas. But there will still be a use for these centers, Mateen said.

Cannon’s newly acquired space sits at a busy intersection and is about 90 percent occupied, he said.

His group isn’t the only one to buy a Southern Nevada shopping center lately.

Florida-based Pebb Enterprises last month announced its third retail acquisition in the Las Vegas area in the past six months, saying it purchased Galleria Pavilion in Henderson.

The plaza, it noted, is just 37 percent occupied.

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