Oregon investors buy former Sears store at Vancouver Mall

The former Sears building at Vancouver Mall has been sold to an Oregon investment group.

The 121,000-square-foot building, now anchored by Hobby Lobby, sold for $27.6 million to Allen Properties of Clackamas, Ore., according to a press release from CPX, a brokerage with offices in Seattle and Lake Oswego, Ore.

“This former Sears building is attached to the larger Vancouver Mall and was fully repositioned with multiple tenants on two levels,” CPX Managing Partner Sean Tufts said in the announcement. “The property is anchored by a highly successful Hobby Lobby along with Round 1 Entertainment, Sephora, and incoming tenants FIIT Nation and Gravity Coffee.”

CPX managing partners Sean Tufts and Kevin Adatto represented the seller, Rhino Holdings Vancouver, which is part of a Henderson, Nev., firm that specializes in “repositioning and redevelopment of underutilized, distressed or environmentally challenged properties,” the company said on its website. Rhino acquired the building after Sears closed in November 2018.

“This transaction represents another successful repurposing of a legacy big box retail property into alternative uses including fitness and entertainment,” Adatto said in the announcement. “Bricks-and-mortar retail, even in large regional malls, continues to thrive while evolving in multiple ways.”

The large “anchor tenant” buildings at Vancouver Mall are owned independently from the rest of the mall, which opened in 1977 and has been owned by Centennial Real Estate Co. of Dallas since 2015.

The sale closed May 11. Allen Properties was represented in the transaction by Kidder Mathews. Allen Properties lists Christopher D. Allen of Lake Oswego, and Dameron Gaye Brundage of West Linn, Ore., as officers/associates.