The Real Reporter - April 8, 2011

LEOMINSTER – The Apple Brook Crossing Shopping Center here at 1123 Central St. is under new ownership, trading for $1.37 million. The buyer was backed by $995,000 in financing from Digital Federal Credit Union, which also leases space in the 12,900-sf retail plaza that opened in 1997.

Situated along Route 12, Apple Brook Crossing is 100 percent leased on a long-term basis to a trio of tenants, including a popular donut shop and a day spa. “It hit all of our parameters,” DCU VP of Commercial Lending Stephen Mackowitz says this week in explaining the opportunity was attractive for reasons other than his Marlborough-based firm’s happenstance operation of a retail branch in Apple Brook Crossing. The net-lease aspect was one lure, he says, as is Apple Brook being a newer property situated on a proven 1.4-acre site that sees a daily traffic count of 15,000 vehicles. The center’s strong sponsor and “appropriate” loan-to-value ratio made DCU comfortable pursuing the deal at a time when retail is recovering from a catastrophic slide.

Convenience-oriented, infill properties have been selectively resilient, notes Mackowitz, who estimates a quarter of DCU’s loan portfolio is in retail, primarily focused on stabilized assets, of which he counts Apple Brook Crossing. “It’s rock solid,” Mackowitz says, with DCU loan officer Leo Barrett handling loan negotiations on behalf of the buyer, Central EPP, LLC. Mackowitz declined comment on the borrower, shown in registry of deeds records to be Ronald L. Rossetti Jr. and Ronald L. Rossetti Sr., a well-known Boston-area entrepreneur. The seller is Freya Fanning & Co., a Beverly based entity managed by James G. Angelakis.

DCU has had a brisk opening to 2011 on the retail front, assisting investor Brad Spencer on his purchase of a net-leased Rite-Aid in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood via a $2.15 million loan, as detailed by The Real Reporter in its February 18th edition. Retail is also a substantial element of 101 Summer St. in the Hub’s Financial District, a 50,000-sf mixed-use building that traded for 45.7 million in May and led to the ground floor being restocked by retail tenants including Chipotle Mexican Grill and Supercuts. DCU provided $6 million for that property to buyer Synergy Investment & Development of Boston.