Carpet distributor buys second Fleet Farm.

Byline: Matt M. Johnson

A Plymouth investor who purchased a Rochester Mills Fleet Farm store in April has added another one in Owatonna to his portfolio.

Three entities controlled by carpet wholesaler Steve Cheney or members of his family paid $13.35 million for the 226,837-square-foot store at 2121 Bridge St. W., according to a certificate of real estate value made public on Wednesday. Built in 1985, the store sits on 42 acres of land in the southwest quadrant of Interstate 35 and Bridge Street and about a mile west of the city's downtown.

New York-based Davidson Kempner Capital Management was the seller in the off-market transaction. The company acquired the store when it paid $490 million to Fleet Farm majority owner KKR in 2016 for a 26-store portfolio, a fact confirmed by Tom Carrico, Fleet Farm's vice president of real estate and construction, in an email to Finance & Commerce.

The deal, which closed on Oct. 10, works out to $58.70 per square foot of retail space in the store. That compares to the $92.73 per square foot of space Cheney paid for the 13-year-old, 373,842 square foot Rochester Fleet Farm in April.

Steele County values the Owatonna Fleet Farm at $7.95 million for tax purposes.

The idea of the Owatonna transaction was first broached after Cheney's Rochester purchase, said Cheney's broker in both transaction, Chad Behnken of Rochester-basedHamilton Real Estate Inc.

The two parties could wind up doing business again in the future, Behnken said in an email.

"Yes there would be opportunity, however nothing is being discussed at this time," he said.

Fleet Farm leases the building. Behnken declined to reveal specifics about the lease, saying only that it runs the same length as the...

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