Portions of Bijou Marketplace in South Lake Tahoe for sale

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There is already international interest in two buildings at the nearly completed Bijou Marketplace in South Lake Tahoe after being listed for sale just over a week ago.

Halferty Development of Pasadena purchased the corner lot at Ski Run Boulevard and Highway 50 from the City of South Lake Tahoe in 2017 for $1.1M and then purchased the land that was once home to the Knights Inn for another $2M. They paid for all demolition, land improvements and building costs.

The development company, who is operating their South Lake Tahoe property as Bijou Marketplace LLC, has been moving steadily on the project since a ground breaking ceremony on August 7, 2017. Stores could be open by Spring 2019, depending on tenants' building schedules.

Whole Foods 365, owned by Amazon, will be an anchor at the center and has signed a 20-year lease with six five-year options for extensions. JPMorgan Chase has signed a ten-year contract for their Chase Bank location.

The 28,000-square-foot building that will hold Whole Foods 365 is being listed for $14M and the 3,000-square-foot Chase building is listed for $4M. The tenants would remain the same as the buyer would be involved for the leased investment. It is not uncommon for developers to create properties and sell to investors.

The other tenant locations are not for sale at this time according to Scott Crowle, the broker handing the property for Cushman & Wakefield.

Besides Whole Foods 365 and Chase Bank, Panda Express and Five Guys will be at Bijou Marketplace, and unconfirmed reports have Chipotle Mexican Grill going in as well.

In September, Cushman & Wakefield arranged the sale of a 50,451-square-foot retail property occupied by Whole Foods Market in Los Altos, California for $55M. Whole Foods 365 are an affordable version of regular Whole Foods stores with innovative features inside that are different from location to location.

In 2017 the City purchased the aging Knight's Inn for $5,935,000 and sold or banked the commercial floor area, tourist accommodation units and residential units of use for future sale.

The undevelopable portions of the site are still owned by the City of South Lake Tahoe for planned improvements to increase ecosystem/watershed filtration processes, restore parcels located in a Stream Environment Zone (SEZ), reduce nutrients and sediment into Lake Tahoe, reduce localized flooding and initiate larger watershed restoration efforts. Grants will fund those projects.

Halferty Development would not confirm the sale or offer any other information about tenants and referred South Tahoe Now to Crowle concerning the property.