MetLife Insurance Sells Grocery-Anchored Plaza to Longpoint

Longpoint Realty Partners picked up a grocery store-anchored shopping plaza near West Miami for $49.3 million. 

The Boston-based private equity firm bought Trail Plaza on the southwest corner of Southwest Eighth Street and Southwest 67th Avenue from a MetLife Investment Management-advised client, according to a news release from the seller’s broker. The plaza is at 1144 Southwest 67th Avenue in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. 

Casey Rosen and Dennis Carson of CBRE represented the seller. 

Trail Plaza, which is anchored by a Fresco y Mas supermarket, is nearly fully leased, the release says. Other tenants include Walgreens, Harbor Freight Tools and Party Depot. 

Completed in 1987, the 181,600-square-foot plaza spans 17 acres and includes six outparcel tenants. Records show Metropolitan Life Insurance Company acquired the property in 1990 by successfully foreclosing on a mortgage held by the previous owner, Trail Plaza Associates. 

Longpoint is a frequent South Florida real estate investor. Last year, it dropped $16 million for a potential development site consisting of a closed mobile home park at 2260 Northwest 27th Avenue in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood. In 2021, Longpoint bought two warehouses at 5201-5299 Northwest 108th Avenue and another one at 5101-5181 Northwest 108th Avenue in Sunrise for $16.6 million. 

Longpoint is led by founders Dwight Angelini, Nilesh Bubna, Reid Parker and Robert Provost III, according to its website. 

South Florida’s retail market has felt the squeeze from e-commerce growth and from higher borrowing costs that suppressed deals over the past year. Still, grocery-anchored plazas fared better, as grocery stores are considered more resilient. 

In August, Terra sold the Publix-anchored 6000 Pines Market shopping plaza at 16000-16040 Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines for $56 million to a real estate investment arm of Marc Rowan’s Apollo Global Management. That followed Edens’ $88.4 million purchase of the Sprouts Farmers Market-anchored Shadowood Square plaza at 9789 Glades Road near Boca Raton.