High profile Walnut Creek restaurant and retail center is bought for $40 million plus

WALNUT CREEK — A high profile restaurant, movie and retail complex in downtown Walnut Creek has been bought by a California based investment group in a deal that hints at wobbly commercial property values in this part of the Bay Area. Olympia Place, located on a choice site in downtown Walnut Creek, has been bought for $44.5 million, according to documents filed on Jan.

5 with the Contra Costa County Recorder’s Office. The restaurant, retail and movie complex, whose anchors include Century Theaters, was bought by a group based in the Los Angeles County city of Diamond Bar. “Olympia Place is a trophy retail center in the heart of downtown Walnut Creek,” according to a marketing brochure circulated by JLL, a commercial real estate firm.

The Walnut Creek retail complex totals 114,600 square feet, the JLL brochure states. Olympia Place is bounded by Mt. Diablo Boulevard, Locust Street, Olympic Boulevard, and South California Boulevard. Primary merchants in Olympia Place include Century Theaters; Planet Fitness; Fleming’s Steak House; Starbucks; Kacha Thai Bistro; Taqueria Extra; Title Nine, a women’s clothing store; Kinsley James, a bridal shop; and C6 Performance, an auto parts store.

The buying group is headed up by Michael Yang, state and county business documents show. Kimco Real Estate sold the property to the buying group, according to property records. American Plus Bank provided the buyers with $23 million in financing at the time of the property purchase, according to the county real estate records.

The just bought property is the collateral for the mortgage. In a possible indicator of a faltering real estate market, the $44.5 million that the buyers paid for Olympia Place is about 13.6% below the property’s assessed value of $51.5 million. “The property is centrally located within the regionally drawing retail district of Downtown Walnut Creek and boasts an extremely affluent customer base with average household income over $200,000,” JLL stated in its marketing brochure..