Poole Properties Inc. Sells Corona del Mar Retail Strip to Shops at CDM LLC for $13.7M
A fully leased, multi-tenant retail strip in coastal Orange County has changed hands for $13.7 million, with the buyer paying $700,000 above the $13.0 million asking price to secure one of the submarket's rare high-street retail assets.
Investor Phil Berry, acting through his company Shops at CDM LLC, acquired 2515 E. Coast Highway in Corona del Mar from Poole Properties Inc. on Aug. 19, 2026. The transaction was co-brokered by Nathan Holthouser of Coastal Commercial and Ron Duong of Marcus & Millichap.
Property and Deal Details
The two-story, Class B retail building at 2515 E. Coast Highway encompasses approximately 13,883 square feet of multi-tenant retail space on a roughly 0.33-acre lot. Built in 1968, the structure carries approximately 184 feet of frontage along Coast Highway and includes 20 parking spaces. The property was 100% leased at the time of closing.
At the $13.7 million sale price, the deal reflects approximately $987 per square foot. The property was originally marketed at $13.0 million — or roughly $936 per square foot — based on an annual net operating income of $442,000 and a 3.40% cap rate. With the buyer paying $700,000, or about 5.4%, above list, the implied cap rate at closing compressed to approximately 3.2%.
A Generational Disposition by Poole Properties Inc.
Poole Properties Inc., formerly known as John Poole Radio Properties, Inc., had held the Coast Highway asset for more than 80 years, dating the family's ownership back to the 1940s. The sale represents a generational disposition of a legacy coastal holding, allowing the Poole family to monetize a low-basis asset at near-record pricing for the submarket.
Buyer Strategy: Local Concentration Along Coast Highway
Phil Berry, a local commercial real estate broker and investor, holds other adjacent properties in the immediate Corona del Mar corridor. Berry's acquisition through Shops at CDM LLC at a premium to asking price reflects a strategy of building concentrated ownership along a high-traffic coastal retail street where replacement cost is high and developable land is scarce.
The property sits in a walkable, high-income coastal submarket near established restaurant and retail traffic drivers, including The Bungalow steakhouse. Corona del Mar's ultra-low retail vacancy and limited competing inventory have supported sub-4% cap rate transactions for stabilized assets in the area.
Market Context: Coastal Orange County Retail
The transaction underscores continued investor appetite for fully leased, multi-tenant retail in supply-constrained coastal Orange County submarkets. Properties along Coast Highway in Corona del Mar benefit from high household incomes, strong visitor traffic, and entrenched retail trade patterns — characteristics that have drawn buyers willing to accept compressed yields in exchange for location quality and income stability.
The 2515 E. Coast Highway deal closed at approximately $987 per square foot, a figure that reflects both the scarcity of available inventory and the premium buyers are assigning to 100%-occupied assets with in-place NNN income in coastal California markets.