Walgreens puts Las Vegas Strip property on market for $40M

Drugstores on the Strip are known for slinging food, booze, shot glasses and more.

Now, Walgreens is trying to sell something else: one of its buildings.

The Illinois-based pharmacy giant has put its property near Showcase mall on the market for $40 million, a listing shows, just three months after it bought the building from the prior landlord for $30 million.

The 15,000-square-foot building on Las Vegas Boulevard between Tropicana and Harmon avenues comes with a drugstore that, according to the listing on LoopNet, is one of the top-performing Walgreens with nearly $12.7 million in reported sales. It does not provide a timeframe for that figure.

The attempted real estate flip comes amid a burst of activity in the area. Showcase is expanding, and one of its owners bought 9.5 acres next to Walgreens a few months ago for $172 million and said it is working on a “flagship retail, entertainment and dining experience.”

Walgreens did not respond to a request for comment on the sales effort. The building’s listing brokers with Stream Capital Partners also did not respond to requests for comment.

Walgreens and CVS drugstores on tourist-choked Las Vegas Boulevard book huge sales numbers, real estate brokers have said, and landlords have paid big dollars to own them.

Since 2012, drugstore properties on the Strip have sold a handful of times, mostly in the $30 million to $40 million range, according to county records.

By comparison, in Southern Nevada’s residential areas, where there aren’t mobs of tourists walking around, drugstores don’t command nearly the same value or pay nearly as much in rent as they do on the Strip.

For instance, Stream Capital is trying to sell a Walgreens building in North Las Vegas for about $8.2 million.

Walgreen Co. bought its now-listed building at 3765 Las Vegas Blvd. South from New York investment firm Spectrum Group Management. The sale closed June 7, property records show.

Showcase’s new section is being built next door. Target unveiled plans last year to open a 20,000-square-foot store in the new portion in 2020.

In late June, Showcase co-owner Gindi Capital bought a chunk of property on the Strip, including the Hawaiian Marketplace retail plaza, on the other side of Walgreens. At the time, Gindi said it was “working with its development and design teams” on a project, but it did not provide detailed plans.

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