Six former Agway properties recently sold as a package for $10.5 million after having been on the market since 2019-20. The key to sealing the deal was finding one buyer for the entire portfolio, said commercial real estate broker Matt Halprin, president of Wethersfield-based New England Retail Properties Inc., who represented the sellers. The Bergantino […]
Six former Agway properties recently sold as a package for $10.5 million after having been on the market since 2019-20.
The key to sealing the deal was finding one buyer for the entire portfolio, said commercial real estate broker Matt Halprin, president of Wethersfield-based New England Retail Properties Inc., who represented the sellers.
The Bergantino family of Guilford, longtime owners of the Agway garden and pet supply centers, sold their businesses in 2016 but retained ownership of the properties, which were leased out to Smithland Pet & Garden Center.
When the family decided more recently to sell the properties, it was key that the parcels all remain together and not be sold off piecemeal, Halprin said.
The Sept. 1 deal includes properties in North Branford, North Haven, Southington, Manchester, Middlefield and Bethel.
Securing a buyer was challenging, Halprin said, because investors were looking at individual units.
“That wasn’t the wish of the property owners,” he said, and “the only way to sell was in a package.”
He found the right buyer in Southport-based Trio Fund I CT Portfolio LLC, which bought all six properties that will continue to operate as Smithland Pet & Garden Centers.
The value, Halprin said, was in the leases that were in place with the supply center operators rather than the property itself.
“What we really sold was the income stream,” Halprin said.
