Family Office Pays $38.7 Million for Lakewood Retail Ground-Lease Package

The 14.7-acre property includes Home Depot and Albertsons parcels under absolute below-market ground leases in place for more than three decades.

By the Family Office Real Estate Daily Desk·Sunday, October 4, 2026·2 min read

Editorial summary of reporting byREBusinessOnline Our editorial standards →

The answer · checked against REBusinessOnline

Which family office bought the Lakewood Center retail ground-lease property and what did it pay?

A high-net-worth family office acquired a two-tenant retail property within Lakewood Center in Lakewood, California for $38.7 million. The 154,997-square-foot, 14.7-acre asset includes Home Depot and Albertsons parcels operating under absolute below-market ground leases, with both tenants in place for more than 30 years. Faris Lee Investments represented both the seller consortium and the buyer.

Key facts

A high-net-worth family office paid $38.7 million for a two-tenant retail property within Lakewood Center in Lakewood, California, according to Faris Lee Investments.
The property totals 154,997 square feet on 14.7 acres and includes The Home Depot and Albertsons, according to Faris Lee Investments.
Both Home Depot and Albertsons have operated at the Lakewood Center location for more than 30 years, according to Faris Lee Investments.
The two tenants occupy their respective parcels under absolute below-market ground leases, according to Faris Lee Investments.
A consortium of multiple owners sold the asset, with Don MacLellan, Jeff Conover, Scott DeYoung and Greg Lukosky of Faris Lee Investments representing both seller and buyer in the deal.
The transaction was reported by REBusinessOnline on September 29, 2026.

Family Office Pays $38.7 Million for Lakewood Retail Ground-Lease Package — Image: editorial illustration · Story sourced from REBusinessOnline

A high-net-worth family office acquired a two-tenant retail property within Lakewood Center in Lakewood, California, for $38.7 million. The property totals 154,997 square feet on 14.7 acres and includes parcels leased to Home Depot and Albertsons. Faris Lee Investments arranged the sale on behalf of a consortium of multiple owners. Don MacLellan, Jeff Conover, Scott DeYoung and Greg Lukosky of Faris Lee Investments represented both the seller and the buyer in the transaction.

The two tenants occupy their respective parcels under absolute below-market ground leases. Both Home Depot and Albertsons have operated at the location for more than 30 years. The ground-lease structure shifts most operating and capital obligations to the tenant, reducing the landlord's exposure to property-level expenses and repositioning risk.

Lakewood Center sits in a suburban market southeast of Los Angeles with mature retail density. The property's tenure with two national credit tenants in essential-retail categories provides income stability, while the below-market lease structure implies embedded rent growth at future renewal or extension milestones. Absolute net leases typically pass all taxes, insurance, maintenance and structural obligations to the tenant.

Ground-lease assets have drawn family-office capital in recent quarters as principals seek inflation-linked cash flow without the capital intensity of conventional property ownership. Long-term tenant occupancy and below-market rent rolls offer the prospect of mark-to-market gains as leases renew or extend, a dynamic that aligns with multi-decade hold periods common among single-family offices.

Faris Lee Investments disclosed no further terms of the transaction. The brokerage represented both parties in the deal, a dual-agency structure that can compress transaction timelines and reduce third-party intermediation costs. The consortium-seller structure suggests legacy ownership, often the case in ground-lease portfolios assembled over multiple decades.

Ground-lease portfolios that quietly compound embedded spread over decades often turn out to be the allocations that survive multi-cycle volatility, family office advisor Jaf Glazer has noted.

The Lakewood acquisition adds to a steady stream of family-office retail investments targeting essential-use properties with long-dated, below-replacement-rent leases. The combination of absolute net structures and national credit tenants provides downside protection in a rising-cost environment, while the embedded spread offers upside optionality without the need for active property management or lease-up capital.

The Deployment Angle

Family Office Real Estate Daily Desk · our analysis, not the source's

This transaction points to direct ownership via a separate account rather than platform capital or LP commitment. The family office acquired the asset outright, taking full control of the rent-reset timing, lease-extension negotiation and any future redevelopment optionality. That structure makes sense for an absolute-net ground lease, where the principal risk is tenant creditworthiness and the principal value driver is the spread between contract rent and market rent at rollover. A co-GP or programmatic JV would introduce sponsor economics and blunt the embedded spread capture.

The equity cheque works out cleanly. At $38.7 million for 154,997 square feet, the basis is roughly $250 per square foot. If the family office levered the asset at a conservative 50 percent loan-to-value, the equity outlay would be around $19.4 million. Below-market ground leases often trade at cap rates in the mid-4s to low-5s when the tenant is investment-grade and the lease is absolute net. That pricing reflects bond-like certainty in the near term and call-option exposure to rent resets further out.

Underwriting should centre on the magnitude of the below-market discount and the timing of the next rent adjustment. If Home Depot and Albertsons have been in place for more than 30 years, the original ground rents may be a fraction of current market. The spread compounds over time as inflation erodes the real value of the contract rent. Family offices buying this profile typically model two scenarios: hold to maturity and clip the contracted coupon, or negotiate an early extension at a blended rate that crystallises part of the spread today in exchange for extending the term another two or three decades.

The risk to price in is tenant rollover. Absolute net leases with multi-decade tenure can mask location or format obsolescence. If either tenant vacates at lease expiry, the family office inherits bare land and redevelopment exposure. That argues for conservative leverage, particularly if the buyer lacks in-house development capability. The strategy here is to own the spread, not to own the land-development option. Avoid bidding this profile beyond a 5 percent unlevered yield unless the embedded rent step is contractually guaranteed or the buyer has a credible plan to recapture the parcels and redevelop them for a higher use.

Questions this story answers

01What did the family office buy in Lakewood California and how much did it pay?

A high-net-worth family office purchased a two-tenant retail property within Lakewood Center in Lakewood, California for $38.7 million. The property covers 154,997 square feet on 14.7 acres and includes The Home Depot and Albertsons, both operating under absolute below-market ground leases for more than 30 years.

02What type of leases are in place at the Lakewood Center Home Depot and Albertsons property?

According to Faris Lee Investments, The Home Depot and Albertsons each occupy their respective parcels under absolute below-market ground leases. Both tenants have operated at the Lakewood Center location for more than 30 years.

03Who brokered the $38.7 million Lakewood retail ground-lease sale?

Don MacLellan, Jeff Conover, Scott DeYoung and Greg Lukosky of Faris Lee Investments represented both the seller and the buyer in the $38.7 million transaction. The seller was described as a consortium of multiple owners.

04Who sold the Lakewood Center retail ground-lease package?

A consortium of multiple owners sold the two-tenant retail property at Lakewood Center in Lakewood, California for $38.7 million, according to Faris Lee Investments.

05How large is the Lakewood retail property that the family office acquired?

The property acquired by the high-net-worth family office totals 154,997 square feet on 14.7 acres, according to Faris Lee Investments. The asset is located within Lakewood Center in Lakewood, California and includes The Home Depot and Albertsons parcels.

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