Publix has bought a Doral shopping plaza that includes a Starbucks, banks and a gas station for $70 million, likely the biggest retail deal in South Florida this year.

The Lakeland-based supermarket chain bought the Doral Plaza on the northwest corner of Northwest 41st Street and 97th Avenue from an affiliate of ShopCore Properties, a Chicago-based retail owner and operator affiliated with the Blackstone Group LP.

The property comprises three lots on 12 acres, according to the Miami-Dade County property appraiser's office. Property records list a 128,255-square-foot property, although that's the larger adjusted size that measures building exteriors includes covered entries and open patios.

A Chase Bank and a Marathon gas station are on the two smaller lots, and the shopping plaza with Publix is on a 10.5-acre lot.

ShopCore, which owned the property through its BPP Doral Plaza LLC affiliate, bought it in January 2017 for $71.53 million from Alecta Real Estate Doral Plaza LLC, according to county deeds.

Perhaps what could account for the high price tag is Doral's population growth from new residential and mixed-use development. Doral Plaza is near large office buildings, nearly two miles from the CityPlace Doral shopping and dining destination and 2.6 miles from Downtown Doral, a 250-acre residential-office-retail development with a school and 3-acre park.

Daniel Mackler, a Gunster shareholder in Miami who worked on the transaction, declined comment.

The sale comes on the heels of several other big retail deals this year.

A four-way venture led by CREC Capital, the investment arm of the CREC brokerage purchased by Colliers International last year, bought the Homestead Pavilion northwest of Florida's Turnpike and Campbell Drive for $62.25 million in May.

Earlier this month, Toronto-based Northbridge Investment Management Inc., which invests in commercial real estate, bought part of Fort Lauderdale's Riverbend Marketplace shopping plaza from developer Gatlin Development Co. for $38.5 million.

Riverbend Marketplace counts a Walmart supercenter as its biggest tenant, but that store is not in the portion acquired by Northbridge. The purchased section is 103,452 square feet.

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