Investors go shopping

When Naples developers Barron Collier and Lutgert opened Mercato in 2008, Southwest Florida was about to be engulfed in one of the most brutal recessions.
Seven years later, the partnership that now includes private equity firm Madison Marquette sold the 456,359-square-foot mixed-use development to Prudential Real Estate Investors for $239.6 million in cash, or $526 per square foot.

That price-per-square foot was nearly five times the average sale price for shopping centers measuring more than 100,000 square feet from Tampa to Naples, according to data tracker CoStar Group. The amount of space at Mercato is roughly equivalent to eight football fields.

Neither buyer nor seller could be reached, but the bidding was fierce. Chuck Taylor, a senior vice president with Madison Marquette, told an audience of commercial real estate brokers at a conference in Fort Myers earlier this year that it has signed confidentiality agreements with 180 prospective buyers.