Michael Sanchez likes turning big boxes into smaller ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not the ones coming up with theories. We just lean into what\u2019s happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sanchez is chief operating officer of Las Vegas-based Rhino Investments, a retail real estate firm with holdings from Michigan to California. Last week, it spent $3.5 million on the 138,000-square-foot former Macy\u2019s connected to the Southwest Plaza mall near Littleton.<\/p>\n
Macy\u2019s had listed the building at 8501 W. Bowles Ave. in unincorporated Jefferson County\u00a0for $7.2 million in 2023.<\/p>\n
Sanchez already has a tenant identified for the top floor of the two-story building. He declined to identify it but said it is \u201cexperiential\u201d in the same vein as a Dave & Busters or an escape room, where \u201cyou\u2019re not shopping, you\u2019re experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first floor of the building will either be chopped up into smaller units or reserved for a single tenant, depending on interest.<\/p>\n
Macy\u2019s\u00a0closed the store in 2020, switching it to a fulfillment center where customers could pick up or return online orders. It had been vacant since the start of the year, according to Erik Christopher of SRS Real Estate Partners, who helped broker the deal for Macy\u2019s with colleague Hillary Kolber and is now marketing the first-floor space.<\/p>\n
Macy\u2019s sold its Southwest Plaza space for less than half the $8 million it received for its space within The Shops at Northfield\u00a0in 2023. It is set to be replaced\u00a0by Wayfair.<\/p>\n
Sanchez said putting new users in a former big box-store can be challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be very mindful about what the use is, and you don\u2019t want to get into very complex demising structures because they become very, very expensive to develop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n