Westwood Financial buys 99%-leased Ralphs-anchored center in Huntington Beach

Westwood Financial has acquired Peninsula Marketplace, a 95,416-square-foot, 99%-leased shopping center in Huntington Beach anchored by Ralphs, for an undisclosed sum, Connect CRE first reported.

Grocery-anchored retail has been a core position for the Southern California owner for nearly 60 years, according to COO Lauren Ball, who called the center a substantial addition to the portfolio. Ball pointed to Ralphs' more-than-two-decade tenure at the site as what has made it part of the Huntington Beach community.

Westwood frames the purchase against a strengthening regional market, citing Orange County's positive net absorption lead in Greater Los Angeles during the second quarter of 2026 and its own Southern California portfolio occupancy above 99% at the end of the first half. That leaves the target's 99% leased a rounding error from identical to the buyer's existing book.

Without a price, the deal cannot show whether Westwood bought occupancy at a going-in cap rate or paid up for the anchor. Underwriting a center like this likely starts with the grocer, whose lease of more than two decades is priced closer to contractual income than to retail, with inline rents following the traffic it produces.

Retail's scarcity premium has split, with grocery anchors and drive-through boxes setting prices while the rest of the strip reprices tenant by tenant. A Ralphs-anchored center at 99% leased, in the county posting the region's strongest absorption, sits on the favored side of that split; the undisclosed price keeps the trade from showing where the favored side is clearing.

How the purchase was financed is also not in the coverage, a gap that matters in a market where maturities are being extended rather than repaid — the pattern that has kept CRE CLO delinquencies below 1% while exits slip further out. A buyer adding 95,416 square feet to a Southern California portfolio already more than 99% leased could be funding from cash flow, a new loan, or a partner; the account does not say.

Peninsula Marketplace is 99% leased, 95,416 square feet, and anchored by a grocer with more than two decades at the address — exactly the facts a price, a cap rate, or a seller name would turn into a comparable. None appears.